Dr. Elisha Kent Kane was America's first Arctic explorer. He served as ship's surgeon with the First Grinnell Expedition and as leader of the second Grinnell Expedition in search of John Franklin. After his death, spiritualist Margaret Fox claimed that she was Kane's common-law wife, but his family refused to grant her a widow's annuity. Five years later she filed a lawsuit, and both parties reached an agreement: an annuity for Fox in exchange for Kane's correspondence with her. Charging that the Kanes had not kept their word, she published this volume anonymously.