Alaska: Tales of Adventure from the Last Frontier

by Spike Walker (Editor)

Overview

For thousands of years Alaska has called to us. The hardy souls who first answered that call endured bitter temperatures, maddening isolation, and often harrowing adventures for the privilege of living there, and many lost their lives in the process. From the earliest human explorers to Russian fur trappers, from Klondike gold seekers to today's miners and oilmen, from Alaska's native people to the millions of tourists who visit the state every year, people have come to Alaska to marvel at its beauty, rejoice in its riches, and measure themselves against its challenges. The wonder of Alaska, as well as its terrifying dangers, come to life in this anthology, featuring true adventures described by some of the best writers in the world, each hand picked by bestselling writer and Alaska aficionado Spike Walker. Alaska: Tales of Adventure from the Last Frontier will open your eyes and stir your soul as it celebrates the untamed beauty of Alaska.

Inside you will find unmatched tales of adventure by the following authors:

Spike Walker

Jack London

Larry Kaniut

Roger A. Caras

Lew Freedman

Dana Stabenow

Gary Paulsen

Jean Aspen

Ann Mariah Cook

John Muir

Washington Irving

And many more...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312275624
Publisher:	St. Martin's Publishing Group
Publication date:	02/18/2002
Edition description:	First Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.72(d)

About the Author

Spike Walker spent nine seasons as a crewman aboard some of the most successful crab boats in the Alaskan fleet. While "working on the edge," the crewmen's term for laboring in the brutal outer reaches of the Bering Sea, Spike encountered 110-mph winds, rode out one of the worst storms in Alaska's history, worked nonstop for seventy-four hours without sleep, participated in record catches of king crab, saw ships sink, helped rescue their crews, and had close friends die at sea.  In addition to his crab-fishing experience, Spike Walker has worked in the offshore oilfields of Louisiana and Texas; along the Mississippi River as a certified, commercial deep-sea diver; and in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Alaska as a logger. He is the author of several works of nonfiction, including Working on the Edge, Nights of Ice, and Coming Back Alive.

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
	Introduction	x
	Living on the Edge
	Too Little, Too Late - Excerpt from Nights of Ice	3
	Lost and Adrift - Excerpt from Danger Stalks the Land	20
	Excerpt from Dangerous Steps	28
	The Iditarod
	Excerpt from Winterdance	45
	Excerpt from Iditarod Classics: Interviews with Libby Riddles, Rick Swenson, and Susan Butcher	54
	Excerpt from Running North	66
	The Great Explorers
	Excerpt from Bering's Voyages	75
	Excerpt from Astoria, or, Anecdotes of an Enterprise Beyond the Rocky Mountains	87
	Yukon and Mackenzie Exploration - Excerpt from The Dominion Illustrated, 1890	91
	The Discovery of Glacier Bay	95
	Gold Rush
	1898	112
	Gold Hunters of the North	122
	Article from The Dyea Trail, January 19, 1898	134
	Klondike Outfit List	137
	Getting There: How to Go - Article from the April 1, 1898, issue of The Klondike News	140
	The Dog Nuisance - Article from the Dawson Daily News, May 23, 1900	146
	To Build a Fire	147
	Natural Wonders
	Excerpt from Monarch of Deadman Bay	165
	Alexander Archipelago and the Home I Found in Alaska	178
	Black Gold
	Excerpt from Who Killed Alaska	193
	Far Trek	205
	An Arco Epitaph	208
	Modern Adventurers
	Males For Sale: Cheap, Hairy	217
	Excerpt from Arctic Son	221
	Excerpt from Goodbye, Boise ... Hello, Alaska	256
	Alaskan Voices
	Excerpt from Edgar Kallands	273
	Excerpt from Simeon Mountain	279
	Excerpt from Goodwin Semaken	284
	Galena - Excerpt from Josephine Roberts, Tanana	291
	Don't Laugh ... It's Not Funny!
	Housekeeping in the Klondike	297
	Still a Few Bugs in the System	303

Editorial Reviews

"...a crackerjack collection of evocative writings from the state, spread over time and geography." —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Fast becoming the dean of Alaskan adventure writing, Walker (Coming Back Alive, 2001, etc.) assembles here a crackerjack collection of evocative writings from that state, spread over time and geography. The selection of well-worn material could easily have come from a commonplace book of passages-in some cases, whole stories or articles-on Alaska. A few are pure adventure and dread, such as Larry Kaniut's account of a man drowning after his legs get stuck in a mudflat. Others showcase Alaskan institutions like the Iditarod, caught best by Gary Paulsen in first-hand experience with that great, numbing race. No collection of this sort would be complete without Jack London's "To Build a Fire," perhaps the best-known Yukon story of all time, but Walker also finds room for London's fine profile of gold prospectors. "No Christian martyr ever possessed greater faith than did the pioneers of Alaska," writes London, but even he is outdone in bleakness by the excerpt from Richard Matthews's The Yukon: "They arrived to claim their reward and found that it was claimed already; there was no good ground left to stake and thousands to stake it." The saving grace of his tale is in the humor as prospector after prospector is done in by the crazy circumstances. "Hope dies hard," notes Matthews, "and in its terminal agonies it is not particular about its sustenance." Mind you, the descriptions of how to get to the gold fields run by the Klondike News in 1898 should have been enough to send prospectors right back home. The gold-rush section is certainly the strongest here, but all of it is worth reading, from Jan Aspen's fictional account of hunting to Dave Brown's dry observations on the rapacious world ofthe Trans-Alaska Pipeline, "the most interesting fiasco I have ever been allowed to participate in." A pleasure even for those who simply like the idea of Alaska, let alone pine to go there.

Kirkus Reviews