Max Dunbar, distinguished marine biologist and renowned teacher and McGill University since 1946, recalls his long and multifaceted life in a series of autobiographical essays. Dunbar details his early years in Great Britain, his life at McGill, his time in Denmark, and above all, his expeditions to Greenland and the Arctic. Essays from a Life was published just before Dunbar's death in 1995.

The volume includes an index and a complete list of his publications.