Erika Behrisch Elce is an assistant professor in the English Department at the Royal Military College of Canada.

From her optimistic requests to whaling ships to her persistent demands for Admiralty aid, Lady Franklin played a crucial role in the search for her husband. Her correspondence with British prime ministers, members of Parliament, lords of the Admiralty, and a US president presents a private, domestic side to a national tragedy and sheds new light on what Sir John Franklin's disappearance meant to England, its public, and its sense of itself as an imperial power. With comprehensive annotations, a descriptive timeline, and an introduction that outlines the significance of Lady Franklin's contribution to the "e;Arctic debate,"e; As affecting the fate of my absent husband is a convincing portrait of the surprisingly disruptive effects - on both the public consciousness and the government bureaucracy - of a single, eloquent, voice of dissent.