Two Words for Snow

Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama nominee

Two Words for Snow is the story of a man who, forced to choose between two worlds, betrays a woman, and her tribe, for a leader who then betrays him. Despite his role on explorer Robert Edwin Peary’s North Pole expeditions, Matthew Henson (1870-1955), has resigned himself to the shadows of history.

A young man, Robert Peary Jr., wants to ensure his late father’s name stands as the discoverer of the Pole. In 1935, these two men meet in the Eskimo Room of the American Museum of Natural History, home to the Inuit artifacts that Peary collected and the gruesome secret that haunts Henson.

Inspired by historical fact, Two Words for Snow uses a chance fictional encounter to imagine the repercussions Peary’s quest had on the psyches of its protagonists - and to tell a story of colliding cultures, ambition and betrayal.

Richard Sanger’s plays include Not Spain (nominated for Chalmers and Governor-General’s Awards), and Two Words for Snow (six Dora nominations and a Governor-General’s nomination); his poems have appeared in many publications, including London Review of Books and the Times Literary Supplement, and in the collections Shadow Cabinet and Calling Home.