Hero Tales of the Far North Author:Jacob A. Riis Jacob Riis was an American journalist, photographer and social reformist. Riis arrived in the United States in 1870, a time of social turmoil just after the Civil War. Riis wrote How the Other Half Lives about the poor houses he had lived in when first arriving in America. His work was read by Theodore Roosevelt who was so moved he ordered th... more »e closing of these police run houses in New York City. Riis felt that it was important for immigrants coming to America to remember their roots. He collected these tales of northern men that he admired as a boy; A KNIGHT ERRANT OF THE SEA, HANS EGEDE, THE APOSTLE TO GREENLAND GUSTAV VASA, THE FATHER OF SWEDEN ABSALON, WARRIOR BISHOP OF THE NORTH KING VALDEMAR, AND THE STORY OF THE DANNEBROG HOW THE GHOST OF THE HEATH WAS LAID KING CHRISTIAN IV GUSTAV ADOLF, THE SNOW-KING KING AND SAILOR, HEROES OF COPENHAGEN THE TROOPER WHO WON A WAR ALON CARL LINNE, KING OF THE FLOWERS and NIELS FINSEN, THE WOLF-SLAYER« less