Book Description
Detailed routes and advice for heading into the wilds of Alaska and northwestern Canada are provided in this guide for RV and tent campers. This grand tour of Alaska covers in detail the Alaskan Highway, routes throughout the Yukon and Alaskan outback, and the ferry system in southeast Alaska. Campgrounds throughout the region are listed with pictures, descriptions of amenities and recreational opportunities, maps, and contact information for each. Important details are discussed, including border crossings, budget planning, vehicle preparation or renting an RV, appropriate clothing, road conditions, and possible wildlife encounters. Recreational information on hiking, mountain biking, boating, rafting, kayaking, and viewing wildlife is also included.
Customer Reviews:
A 'must have' for RV'ing Alaska!.......2007-09-23
I waited to review this book until our return from Alaska. I must say it was amazing! We were driving a 32' Winnebago Chalet from Great Alaskan Holidays (a good experience, I would like to add) and wanted to eliminate getting 'stuck' in tight spaces so we quickly learned to look for those warnings in the book. The campgrounds are described very accurately, the pricing info was reliable and the route descriptions and depictions are also reliable and organized. We also relied on The Milepost for general info on services and sights but for locating campgrounds, this book was invaluable! We RV with Foghorn's books on the west coast of the lower 48 and they are very good too!
Easy to read.......2007-07-17
We found the book very informative, easy to follow, and great value for the price. We plan to use it on our next trip to Alaska and the Yukon.
VERY COMPLETE & COMPREHENSIVE.......2007-05-24
As I write this review, my husband and I are about a week and a half away from leaving on our 4-month expedition to Alaska. We are leaving in early June 2007 and expect to return to Texas by October 1, 2007. I bought this book in April 2007 and have looked at it extensively since I bought it. I'm pretty sure it will be at least as valuable to us as the Milepost will be, if not more so. It begins by answering many questions one may have about what kind of clothes to bring, what to expect at the border, how much money to bring, the best places to see wildlife, insects, laundry - you get the picture. It covers just about everything. It appears as though the authors have visited and rated every campground, private and government, and every place where it's legal to park your rig along the Highway. Directions to each campground are given according to its milepost marker and its GPS location. There are little pictures of each town and where each campground, store and point of interest is located. It describes the places not to miss along the way, as well as good places to fish. I only wish the authors had included all that information through Canada as well!
I'm pretty sure this guide will be well-worn by the time we get home. If you're planning to RV through Alaska, you need to get this book!
Great Campground Guide.......2007-03-12
I should probably wait until after our trip in June, 2007, but so far this has been a great campground guide for planning. I have been using it in addition to the Lonely Planet book and the Milepost.
Absolutely Essential!.......2006-10-21
We recently completed a four-month motorhome trip to Alaska. We had several books with us, but the most consistent good information came from this book. The campground descriptions were right on. In addition to camping, when we had to decide whether to see one attraction vs another, the book's advice was invaluable. Don't leave home without it!
Book Description
Thrilling action, an intuitive feeling for animal life, a sense of justice that often works itself out through violence: these are the qualities that made Jack London phenomenally popular in his own day and continue to make him, at home and abroad, one of the most widely read of all American writers. "The Call of the Wild," perhaps the best novel ever written about animals, traces a dog's education for survival in the ways of the wolfpack. "White Fang," in which a wolf-dog becomes domesticated out of love for a man, is an unforgettable portrayal of a world of "hunting and being hunted, eating and being eaten, all in blindness and confusion." In "The Sea-Wolf," the primitive takes human form in the ruthless, indomitable Wolf Larsen, captain of a crew of outcasts on the lawless Alaskan seas. Set in the Klondike, California, Mexico, and the South Seas, the short stories collected here--many for the first time--show London as one of the great American storytellers.
Customer Reviews:
An American Master..........2007-06-07
You can't lump too many people into the same sphere with London...Twain, Poe, and Lovecraft are a few that spring to mind. He's an American Titan, and he gets the fawning treatment you'd expect from the Library of America in this exemplary, extraordinary, green-registered book.
Call of the Wild is a page-turning yarn about a dog that becomes a wolf. It's listed on the MLA 100, but any competent kid of ten could tackle it...and enjoy it.
White Fang is a canine bildungsroman that inverts the plot of Call of the Wild, with the wolf becoming a dog. Also a page-turner, also something a kid would read without having to be coerced, and possessed of a truly classic scene where White Fang fights a bulldog.
The Klondike Short Stories are all superb--some people think London's metier was the short story rather than the novel--with Batard being a personal favorite.
The Sea-Wolf is a work of genius...until it all comes crashing down with the introduction of Maud Brewster, and the escape to Endeavour Island. What had heretofore been a truly transcendent work of art transmogrifies into a clunky, melodramatic, and tedious chore, where London's love of sailing jargon threatens to overwhelm the reader.
The Selected Short Stories show that London wasn't just a Yukon guy...he had some other arrows in his quiver. A few stories demonstrate his--at the time--devout socialism, which lasted up until he himself got rich. The Apostate is the weakest of these, but The Strength of the Strong is a pretty good allegory for fin-de-siecle capitalism, with all its gory excesses. London also writes convincingly about such diverse topics as boxing, South Sea cannibals, and straight-up science fiction.
This book of books is excellent, and any American who fancies himself a lover of literature would be remiss in not reading it.
Amazing on multiple levels!.......2007-02-24
Novels and Stories was the first of a two volume set that I scored for cheap on ebay a few years ago. The second, Novels and Social writings concentrates on his political/social novels and essays while this one is comprised of his Alaskan and sea bearing adventure stories.
This book weighs in at over 1000 pages and includes three GREAT novels in Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf and White Fang as well as multitudes of his short stories.
I can't say enough about how much I love Londons writings and how much admiration I have for him as a man as well. I've read Call of the Wild about every two years or so since the first time I read it as a child and I get more out of it every time I re-read it. His adventure stories on one level are just great red blooded adventure stories that anyone who has any heart or spirit would enjoy and there is a deeper level to London as well. His stories are highly spiritual if you are able to look at them on another level. Although thats something that you have to "feel" from within I suppose.
Call of the Wild.......2005-05-17
This book was really good, but I believe that White Fang was better. Many settings took place, but I will start with the main ones. The first setting in this book was Judge Millers Mansion. The second is the dog breakers place, in which Buck (the main character, a dog,) learns the "law of Club and Fang." The third place is where Buck learns the method of husky fighting, and because the other dog died, he lived a long and well-lived life. The first major event in this book is when a person steals Buck from Judge Miller, and he is starved and strangled and is thrown in a shed to wait for a train to the dog breaker. There, he is introduced to the primitive law of club and fang. After that, he, and a Newfoundland, are taken to Alaska. There, he is introduced to the method of Husky Fighting, and then is put into the harness, and is put to work on the mushing sled. The next major event is when Buck is taken of his first mushing trip in the wild. There he learns how to keep warm in the harsh winters by digging into the snow and having your body heat heat up the space. The next area is when Buck and Spitz finally fight to the death, and Buck takes the position of lead dog on the mushing track. Finally, the last major setting is when Buck finaly turns to the wild, and he attacks the YeeHats with a vengance, because they had killed his LOVED master. The conflict in this book is Buck is a spoilled rotten dog, until he reaches the North and finds that he has wild ancestors. They eventually take over Buck and he lives with the wild.
Reality or Fantasy... Which one is it?.......2003-05-18
After reading this book for school, (not that I was forced to) I gave it a 4/5 star rating. It was excellent when it came to the setting of the story. Even though it is a very short, it crams alot of suspensfull and interesting moments into 100 some odd pages. This book is quite good and page turning. I highly recommend it to readers who like a mix of reality and fantasy in one. Masterful piece of writing.
THE GREATES.......2002-09-17
Jack London was one of the greatest American writers. I love everything he wrote and I wish I could write as well as he did.
Average customer rating:
- The not-so secret life of dogs
- Buck realizes his potential
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The Call of the Wild (Unabridged Classics)
Jack London
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ASIN: 1400100941 |
Book Description
Buck lives a content life. Half St. Bernard, half Shepard, he is top dog on a California ranch. But the Gold Rush in the Klondike has produced an enormous demand for sled dogs so, when a Gardner at the ranch needs to pay a gambling debt, stealing and selling Buck is a quick way to do it.
Having never been mistreated, Buck soon learns that man can be the cruelest animal. He is whipped, beaten and caged, but never broken. Confronted by the law of survival, Buck learns to fight, steal and pull a sled. He takes pride in his new strength and ferocity. Buck manages to escape this life of abuse and learns to love a new master more than his own life. He gradually discovers the skills of his forbears and finds his home in the primordial forest - eventually Buck cannot resist the call of the wild.
This classic book brings out the true spirit of the Gold Rush days at the turn of the last century. It portrays the brutality, kindness, love, and folly that Jack London experienced first hand during his time in the far north. It was his first successful book, and catapulted him to literary fame.
Customer Reviews:
The not-so secret life of dogs.......2005-12-17
This is a powerful tale that presents the psychology of a dog's mind, as transparent to the reader. The influence of London's writing style is seen in countless modern novels, and has the ability to transport you emotionally to the cold desolate artic. It's a dog lovers story, without the sappiness of such tales told in the more contemporary voice. His conclusions, are rational, and any one who loves animals should hear them...dogs are dogs...and that's OK.
Buck realizes his potential.......2005-01-31
Gold was found in Alaska, the rush to obtain it required a strong constitution and many dogs to do the work that horses usually did in the states. The environment bread harsh attitudes. Also in the testing of ones mettle one finds their true potential.
Buck (a dog that is half St Bernard and half Shepherd) goes through many lives, trials, and tribulations finally realizing his potential. On the way he learns many concepts from surprise, to deceit, and cunning; he also learns loyalty, devotion, and love. As he is growing he feels the call of the wild.
This book is well written. There is not a wasted word or thought and the story while building on its self has purpose and direction. The descriptions may be a tad graphic for the squeamish and a tad sentimental for the romantic. You see the world through Buck's eyes and understand it through his perspective until you also feel the call of the wild.
Book Description
Larry Whitesitt of Spokane, Washington, began flying in 1959 and purchased a Piper J-3 Cub when he had 15 flying hours. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was a bush pilot, flying de Havilland Beaver sea planes and ski planes out of the Yukon into British Columbia and Northwest Territories. This story begins in the cockpit of 734 Uniform Whiskey, a small palne he flew alone to the Arctic Ocean and the Inuit Village of Tuktoyaktuk. Larry reflects on his adventures, which include enounters with mean grizzly bears, a crash in a ski plane, and great fishing trips. The story ends with Larry's last flight into his beloved north, which was recorded on video.
Book Description
The spirit of childhood leaps to life again with boundless energy and magic in Yukon Ho!, the newest collection of adventures featuring rambunctious six-year-old Calvin and his co-conspirator tiger-chum, Hobbes. Picking up where The Essential Calvin and Hobbes left off, Yukon Ho! is sure to begin an immediate reign at the top of bestseller lists everywhere!
Customer Reviews:
C&H Is Always Fun To Read!.......2006-10-31
This book, just like all the other Calvin & Hobbes books, was an enjoyment to read. I recommend it to all ages of readers.
Yet more genius.......2005-07-25
You can always rely on Calvin and Hobbes to deliver the funnies. And if you're a keen reader, Calvin's unique (if rather skewed) perception of the world with keep the kid inside you alive (I don't mean this literally but as a metaphor). Unless you've been horribley deprived you'll pretty much all remember the magic of a snow storm or a sunset while sitting under a tree or an adventure in the woods or playing Monopoly with a tiger.
The title refers to a series of strips in which Calvin and Hobbes plan to escape the Yukon to be free of the repressions of family rules. Needless to say, their journey is cut short when Hobbes eats the only two sandwiches Calvin bothered to pack.
Any Calvin and Hobbes fan will already own this. Everyone else must buy!
One of the More Popular Books.......2003-11-26
First, and foremost, it must be known: All Calvin and Hobbes are great. Yukon Ho!, however, is one that tends to rise above the rest. It's true this is one of the earlier books and includes the 9 verse tune The Yukon Song and has all the great cartoons, but why it seems to be more popular, I cannot say. All I know and can guarantee is that it's funny and is everything Calvin and Hobbes. From the beginning of the book where Calvin is convinced that he and Hobbes have traveled into the future (nope not with a cardboard box) it is too easy to appreaciate Calvin's motives. He's not after the secrets of genetic cloning or the what politician is waging wars with other countries. He's looking forward to floating cities and telling people in the present what he saw. And this is the real beauty of Calvin and Hobbes shows through. It's the quest of a six-year-old to have a good time with a furry friend. Rarely in a comic strip has such devotion and integrity of a kid been so accurately portrayed.
You'll chuckle at Calvin's dad 's explanation of the workings of a carburetor and the hilarious camping trip to a desolate rock that Calvin's entire family embarks on. Rosalyn appears again, and yes, again terrorizes Calvin. Calvin digs up dirt on his dad,which compromises his father's high-ranking position of dad. Calvin tries and fails to be the next Houdini and Susie and Calvin are assigned an a project together. All the way to the new and improved transmogrifier, it's pure magic, purely Calvin and Hobbes.
Watterson Rules!!!.......2003-01-27
bill watterson is an amazing cartoonist. When I opened this book I was immeadiatly sucked in. His drawings are amazing and the water color he uses is great. once again he has created a comic book that anyone can enjoy. calvin and hobbes is not the ordinary slapstick humor you find in most funnies, it has a refreshing touch of witty charm. I love these comics and i would recommend them to anybody.
A Boy and His Tiger.......2002-12-14
"Yukon Ho!" is a collection of daily and Sunday "Calvin and Hobbes" comic strips. Since the dates have not been left in the strips, it is difficult to determine the time frame involved. But that doesn't really matter, because this strip is as fresh and funny today, years after Bill Watterson ended the strip, as it was back in the day.
If you have never heard of Calvin and his adventures with his stuffed tiger, Hobbes, pick this book up today and become hooked with the rest of us.
Amazon.com
While most modern mysteries set in Alaska concentrate on the damage done to the ecology or the strange personalities who take refuge in this arctic vastness, Sue Henry's books are more straightforward and usually more fun. In such stories as Deadfall and the Anthony Award-winning Murder on the Iditarod Trail, Henry follows in the sled and snowshoe tracks of writers like Jack London and Robert W. Service, who realized that Alaska was the last great frontier of adventure. Her characters, like champion sled-dog racer Jessie Arnold, are welcome throwbacks to a simpler period when physical challenge was a healthy way to measure self-esteem.
Jessie is testing herself in the thousand-mile Yukon Quest race, which follows the old mail trail from Whitehorse to Fairbanks, when one of the other racers is kidnapped and held for ransom. The kidnappers insist that only Jessie can deliver the money, and it has to be on the most dangerous leg of the race. Any attempt to involve the police will result in the victim's death. Of course, the worst blizzard of the year blows up just as the race gets to that point, and it goes without saying that Jessie risks herself and her beloved dog team to recover the victim and capture the bad guys. Even if the thought of somebody shouting "Mush!" fills you with silent laughter, you're sure to be gripped by Henry's ability to recreate the pleasures and perils of an arcane sport in a breathtaking landscape. --Dick Adler
Book Description
The Yukon Quest has the reputation of being the toughest sled dog race in the world, taking teams and mushers through more than a thousand miles of North America's most remote and treacherous territory. Jessie Arnold is ready to meet the challenge.
Jessie and her team of dogs are well prepared for the daring competition, but her one regret is that her longtime friend and lover, Alex Jensen, isn't there to see her off. Alex has been called home to Idaho for a family emergency and Jessie begins the big race without her biggest booster. Well along the trail, Jessie is stunned to learn that a young novice racer she met at the start has been abducted and held for ransom. The girl's distraught father has been warned that no one but Jessie Arnold is to be told--especially not the police. Feeling isolated and alone, Jessie must decide what to do in the face of terrible odds.
It's the contest of a lifetime, yet as the other mushers push toward the finish line, Jessie forges ahead in a race all her own. Unable to ignore the plight of the missing girl, she's in a life and death battle against a desperate, unknown kidnapper who will stop at nothing. Speeding through the twists and turns of the icy, broken trails, Jessie has no time for fear. For somewhere in that vast and lonely landscape, a killer waits for a chance to unleash a murderous rage on anyone who dares to get in his way.
Customer Reviews:
murder to read.......2005-09-09
I've been painfully trying to read all of Sue Henry's novels, but I think this one has finally ended my quest. Murder on the Iditarod Trail and Sleeping Lady were very good novels, but in my opinion, the rest are just dull. Murder on the Yukon Quest tells of more hardships for Jessie Arnold. It is so implausible that so much "Bad Luck" could befall one woman and her dogs. Alex Jensen shows up briefly in bits of the novel just to give poor Jessie something else to worry about. Sorry Sue, I can't bear to read anymore.
Not Good.......2004-03-15
Sue Henry's mystery stories cover ground but her characters are so flat and lifeless that they could be used for ground cover. Even the dogs have more personality.
Good mushing, lousy mystery.......2002-09-17
While billed as "An Alaskan Mystery", this is really a book about life on the trail. Even as that, it fails to satisfy. The plot involves a kidnapping and murder on the Yukon Quest race. I believe it fails to live up to its billing as a mystery because the clues necessary to solve it aren't provided. The author basically tells you one of the culprits, you can sort of guess another by elimination, and the remainder require a TV "Perry Mason" like confession at the end (in his books, Gardner did things differently). This isn't the way a mystery should be written. The book is better when viewed as a mushing story but Ms. Henry's writing style reduces what should be an exciting adventure into painful tedium. After finishing YQ, I re-read Ludlum's "Bourne Identity" which I'd rate 5 stars. The differences in pacing, sentence structure, descriptions, ... were startling yet there's nothing about YQ that shouldn't support as exciting a novel as BI. Even if YQ provided the clues to be a good mystery, it would still be boring and that's its worst flaw. The only reason I gave it a second star was the author does a commendable job providing insight into the life of a dogsled racer. If you want a book that provides these insights, this might be an O.K. choice but if you want either a mystery or a well written novel, hunt elsewhere.
Topnotch thriller.......2002-05-11
Sue Henry is back to her best form in this sixth book of the Alaska Mystery Series. Jessie Arnold decides to forego the Iditerod in order to compete in the less famous but more rugged Yukon Quest. Partway through the race, one of the mushers is kidnapped and Jessie is asked to deliver ransom to the kidnappers while she is in the middle of the race. As always, Henry's descriptions make the reader feel the freezing temperatures and stark beauty of the Yukon and the Alaskan wilderness. She also describes well the feelings of the characters who are put in dangerous situations. Henry deals with Jessie's ambivalent feelings about her relationship with Alex Jensen in this book. This is the best in the series since the first novel, Murder on the Iditerod Trail.
Disappointing entry in this series.......2002-03-01
As usual, Sue Henry does a wonderful job depicting the Alaskan wilderness and the excitement of racing dogs. I loved her racing and dog scenes. However, an important component of the plot didn't make sense - why was Jessie pulled into the kidnapping plot? That was never explained. In addition, I am very disappointed at how the author handled the relationship between Jessie and Alex. Jessie is very unreasonable and self-centered, IMHO. She has a great guy and she doesn't seem to appreciate that or seem to have the ability to love and accept a partner's imperfections and mistakes. She also displayed a disappointing lack of empathy when Alex's father dies. Two of the reasons I had loved this series was I really liked and admired Jessie and I also enjoyed reading about a healthy, positive, loving relationship. After this book, I don't really admire Jessie's handling of intimate relationships. This book made me feel as if the author had decided to abruptly put the focus back on Jessie alone and used the "independent woman" routine to do that, whether it made sense or not. I already have the next book in the series, so will read it, but that will probably be the last time I bother to read a Sue Henry book.
Book Description
This book tells the fascinating story of an Athabascan-Irish family's journey from the old ways to the more modern but uncertain world of the twentieth century.
Customer Reviews:
Read this book.......2007-01-31
The other reviewers who also gave it 5 stars said it the best. I'm just adding my emphasis that you should read this book. It was inspiring and just a very memorable and eye-opening story of native people growing up in the "white man's" world. I enjoyed it thoroughly.
Memorable.......2002-05-30
A proud but impoverished Alaskan Indian family struggling to move into modern white society from its ancient culture filled with spirits -- deeply moving, humorous, tragic, yet inspirational.
A cultural snapshot of an Interior Alaskan family........2001-07-11
An informative and important ethnographic work giving a glimpse of one family's life experiences in interior Alaska. A story well crafted and researched by one of the descendants of an Athabascan/Irish family filled with the realities of the sometimes harsh aspects of life in the north but yet also filled with the joys of living with strands of hope. It demonstrates how people cope with the clashing of cultures and how people on another level recreate their identity with one foot in the past (belief in Cold River Spirits) and one in the present. This book is highly recommended as a prime example of how to do ethnography. At times an air of expectancy is created and much like Louise, a central character in the family story, we get a sense of what's to come. It was story told with candor and helps to give us a snapshot of the cultural landscape of her people.
Best book since TWO OLD WOMEN.......2001-01-04
COLD RIVER SPIRITS is a wonderful and welcome addition to my library. Jan Harper-Haines writes with wisdom and humor. She tells the story of her family with candor, helping readers appreciate the challenge of living in two cultures. The book is a fast read; I couldn't put it down. As a result, I gave several copies as holiday gifts to friends and family. COLD RIVER SPIRITS deserves five stars.
Cold River Spirits.......2000-12-05
I absorbed Cold River Spirits in a flurry of intense reading. Once the book was opened, I could not put it down. The stories were compelling and engaging, full of warmth, amusement, charm, sorrow, and tragedy. I was drawn into the lives of this Alaska Native family and rejoiced in their triumphs and commiserated in their troubles. The icon of the family, Louise, embodied the power, strength and wisdom of the Alaska Native woman. Louise's thoroughly modern daughter, Flora Jane, determined, bright, and plucky, became the first Alaska Native, man or woman, to graduate from the University of Alaska! These real life stories reflect the difficulties and challenges of the Alaska Native people as it has in more recent times interfaced with the pervasive and dominant white culture. But Cold River Spirits is not just an ethnological family history; it has much broader appeal, for it crosses cultural and racial lines, and the reader senses the deeper message of the themes of humanity that unify us all.
Book Description
Part travelogue, part adventure, part love letter to a vanishing world, this is an expedition into the heart of our past in the tradition of Coming into the Countryand Goodbye to a River
In his square-sterned canoe, Alaska resident Dan O'Neill set off from Dawson, Yukon Territory, onetime site of the Klondike gold rush, to trace the majestic Yukon River. His journey down river to Circle City, Alaska, is more than one man's voyage into northern wilderness; it's an expedition into the history of the river and its land, and a record of the inimitable and little-known inhabitants of the region. In A Land Gone Lonesome, O'Neill blends natural history with human history into a piece of brilliant literary travel writing.
Though he spends much of his time on the river, at the heart of O'Neill's story are his forays into the Yukon wilderness and into the lives of a few souls still clinging to the old ways in a beautiful and hostile country-men like "Charley River" Charlie in his dog-fur vest and "The Iron Man of the Yukon" Percy DeWolfe-even as government policies are extinguishing people like them. More than just colorful anachronisms, these wilderness dwellers are a living archive of North American pioneer values.
As O'Neill encounters these characters, he finds himself drawn into the bare-knuckle melodrama of their outmoded lives-and further back still into the very origins of the Yukon River world. With the singular perspective of an insider, O'Neill has painted an intelligent, rhapsodic-and, ultimately, probably the last-portrait of the Yukon and its authentic inhabitants.
Customer Reviews:
A wealth of Knowledge.......2007-06-01
This book is so visual. My OH my...reading this book, with my Alaska ATLAS in hand, I was transported to the Yukon - Charley region almost as if I were there!!!!!!!!!
Then I went onto Google Earth and zeroing in on places like Circle and Eagle was unreal...Thank you Dan, for a terrific, fantastic, ESCAPE from the daily grind. The only thing better...to buy a van, load up a boat, and driver to Circle, Alaska and shove off!!!!!!!!!
How men conquer the nature.......2007-01-10
Very interesting and educational especially for me who is not familiar with the hystory and geography of Alaska.It is amazing how this people who lived there fought for theirlives in this harsh enviroment.It is sorry that the goverment is more interested in searching for oil there that to preserve this unic land and help more people who want to stay there.
What I find a little negative in this book is the missing of photos of the Alascan landscape
Man and Nature.......2007-01-09
A gracefully written account of travels on the Yukon River. In his appreciation for the beauties of place and his understanding of man's place in nature O'Neill reminds one of Wendell Berry (the highest praise I can give). O'Neill also underscores the bureaucratic mentality of the National Park Service that has systematically eliminated the intentions of the legislation establishing the Yukon preserve.
The Depopulation of the Upper Yukon Watershed.......2006-12-27
Dan O'Neill is an adventurer, a historian, a "floater" (as Yukon River canoe campers are called), and an advocate for a people whose names may be last seen in these pages. This book is ostensibly a story about a float trip O'Neill makes from Dawson, in Canada's Yukon Territory, to Circle, in Alaska, through the Yukon Charley Rivers National Preserve, administered by the National Parks Service. Actually, it is seven trips condensed into one. O'Neill is the spiritual descendant of John McPhee, whom he quotes extensively as the base-line Yukon River interpreter. The reader may be forgiven if he believes that he will be treated to a combination of float trip travelogue and history of the places and people who make the country what it is. Little by little we learn that O'Neill wants to do more than report; he intends to make a statement and to leave an impact.
O'Neill makes (and re-makes) a compelling case that the National Parks Service is egregiously mismanaging the wilderness it is supposed to be protecting. The NPS faces the same conflict in the Yukon Charley Rivers National Preserve that it has in other national parks. How do you preserve a natural area for people to enjoy in perpetuity when each person who visits incrementally damages the area? O'Neill argues that the Yukon Charley Rivers National Preserve differs so radically from the nation's other parks that it requires fresh thinking and a more tailored conservation regime. The lament implicit in the title is that this dramatically attractive land, inhospitable as it is, once was home to scores of rugged, subsistence pioneers, and could safely be so again under a more creative land use policy.
The enduring legacy of Dan O'Neill's book will not be his administrative prescriptions, though, but his deft, economical, and often sardonic descriptions of the land and its people. We learn a great deal about the geologic history of the region, including the fact that prior to the last ice age, the river ran southward, opposite its current direction. We learn where the gold-bearing strata are located and how they were exploited during the gold rush. We trap martin and lynx, and catch king salmon to feed ourselves and chum salmon to feed our dogs, We meet characters that couldn't conceivably be made up, like Dick Cook, whom we admire for his resourcefulness and indomitable spirit, and whose body we last see face down in the river that supported him. We poke through trash middens in a sort of contemporary archaeology, and learn how to handle irascible settlers and even more irascible grizzlies.
O'Neill treats us to a world which few of us are likely ever to see. "Moose, wolf, and bear have signed the mud registry in recent weeks, and I make my own prints, climb the bank, and look for a trail..." He faithfully reports and interprets his observations and gently constructs his arguments. Regrettably, however, he is not a gifted writer, and this deficiency occasionally shows, as in his purple descriptions of scenery. "The river is molten gold...the sky is a dazzling, luminous yellow where fiery clouds flash gilded edges...then I remember that the whole spinning world is a miracle, and that sometimes reality dawns more golden than dreams." And then there is the occasional error that an editor should have caught, "Sudden death killed forty-four of the fifty-five Alaskans who died in boating accidents between 2001 and 2003..." The reader may well wonder how death can be the cause of death.
I recommend "A Land Gone Lonesome" to armchair "floaters" and all who are curious about the forced depopulation of the upper Yukon watershed. You will meet the colorful denizens of a world just recently past, and the remarkable stage they have exited. And if you become motivated to visit the Yukon for yourself, you can thank McPhee and O'Neill for their contrasting depictions of the Yukon River and its fatal attraction.
The Yukon: Lonesome Except for the Ghosts.......2006-09-11
Dan O'Neill drops his canoe into the Yukon River near Dawson City (Canada) and paddles downriver in search of the Alaskan homesteader and the subsistence lifestyle familiar to many from John McPhee's book, "Coming Into the Country."
O'Neill's book is meant as both an update and a rebuke to McPhee and his fans. Most emphatically, O'Neill documents the decay and disappearance of the trappers that McPhee wrote about. Outside a few tiny villages, there is no longer a single family inhabiting the whole area O'Neill surveys on a year-round basis. He visits cabin after decaying abandoned cabin, musing on the complicity of the National Park Service in eliminating a culture that, from O'Neill's perspective, was worth preserving.
I expect there are a lot of Alaskans that share O'Neill's disappointment. And he does an excellent job communicating it - he's a first-rate journalist. Some parts of the story are downright lyrical; others are first-rate news reporting.
The narrative thread of his canoe journey from time to time gets buried behind his urge to fuss at the authorities setting policy in the area. The book gets increasingly episodic and disjointed the further downstream he gets. However, for fans of McPhee's book, and for fans of Alaska in general, a worthy addition to the literature.
Book Description
n the tradition of Friday Night Lights, an extraordinary journey into the basketball-crazed culture of remote Arctic
Alaska
.
The village of Fort Yukon sits eight miles above the Arctic Circle, deep in Alaska’s “bush” country. The six hundred men, women and children who live there—almost all of them Athabascan Gwich’in Natives—have little to cheer for. Their traditional Indian ways of life are rapidly vanishing in the face of a modern culture that is closing in on all sides, threatening to destroy their community and their identity. The one source of pride they can count on is their boys’ high school basketball team—the Fort Yukon Eagles.
Eagle Blue follows the Eagles, winners of six regional championships in a row, through the course of an entire 28-game season, from their first day of practice in late November to the Alaska State Championship Tournament in March. With insight, frankness, and compassion, Michael D’Orso climbs into the lives of these fourteen boys, their families, and their coach, shadowing them through an Arctic winter of fifty-below-zero temperatures and near-round-the-clock darkness as the Eagles criss-cross Alaska by air, van, and snow machine in pursuit of their—and their village’s—dream.
Customer Reviews:
Boldly honest perspective of Native life in modern Arctic Alaska.......2007-05-09
Boldly honest, "insiders" perspective from an outsider. Interesting insight into modern Native life in Arctic Alaska.
D'Orso's honest, unembellished presentation of everyday life for the characters - team members and townspeople of Fort Yukon - allows the reader to gain an open true look at what everyday life entails in this part of Alaska. It brings out the difficulties of living in the outposts of Arctic Alaska, Native vs. modern culture, politics vs. the land/natural resources/hunting/etc., and of course the tale of a group of young men and women representing their town as members of high school basketball teams. The pressures faced by these young men as individuals, family members, and town members and how each deals with it and grows shows a great view of life as it unfolds for them. Their daily lives are woven around the story of the basketball team and the course of a season sharing the success and adversity over the course of the year. A wonderful mix of human interest and basketball.
Highly enjoyable read.
Alaskan Basketball.......2007-04-12
This review of a basketball team's season is about an entire culture and about life. You'll be rooting on the Eagle Blue as you read this true story.
Splendid effort.......2007-03-20
I've read many books about a sports season that, in a boring way, review game highlights. D'Orso reviews the entire culture, what basketball means in bush country, Alaska, in prose that is wonderful and intelligent.
Well worth the read!.......2007-01-10
Excellent book on life and sports. I'd recommend this to everyone, especially players and coaches at all levels.
eagle blue review.......2006-12-13
Eagle Blue by Michael D'Orso is story about a high school's basketball team's journey through their season. When a teacher decides to help out a high school basketball team the boys skills, reputation and endurance are put to the test. As the team moves on through the season they discover there strengths and weaknesses on and off the court. I personally am not a big fan of heroic sports stories were the main team wins every single game. This however has got to be one the greatest books I've ever read. Read eagle blue and get captured in a wonderful story about a team, a tribe, and a basketball team in artic Alaska.
Average customer rating:
- GRANDFATHER OF THE COWBOY POETS
- Cremation of Sam McGee
- "There are strange things done in the midnight sun..."
- A deep and inqusitive piece of literature.
- Poems/ballads about the Yukon people.Sad,witty&funny.Bravo!
|
Best Tales of the Yukon: Including the Classic "Shooting of Dan McGrew" and "the Cremation of Sam McGee"
Robert W. Service
Manufacturer: Running Press Book Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Similar Items:
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Best of Robert Service
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Collected Poems of Robert Service
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The Cremation of Sam McGee
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The Klondike Fever: The Life and Death of the Last Great Gold Rush
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The Spell of the Yukon
ASIN: 0762414596 |
Book Description
In 1904, the Canadian Bank of Commerce transferred teller Robert W. Service to the Yukon Territory. Soon, he was famous as the poet who chronicled the Klondike gold rush and the savage beauty of the frozen north. His tales of hard-bitten prospectors and sourdoughs in "The Land God Forgot" make vivid, exciting reading. Here are all the brawling, colorful characters that Service immortalized, including One-Eyed Mike, Dangerous Dan McGrew, Pious Pete, Blasphemous Bill-and, of course, the lady known as Lou.
Customer Reviews:
GRANDFATHER OF THE COWBOY POETS.......2006-12-24
Robert Service, if anyone, could be called "the grandfather of cowboy poets." This has been a popular genre over the past few years and much of the work done by these wonderful men and women can be traced back to Service's poems and style. Being called the "Bard of the Yukon" is certainly true, but sells this particular writer short. His works include so much more that just the delightful poems of the Canadian Territory. Simply written, with a story, they are quite a delight for both old and young alike. I recent years, some of our elitist in our academic world have been less than kind to this poet. This is all well and good with me. They simply don't get it. Service's work will quite likely endure far longer than some of the ranting I read in the professional journals. I read these poems to young folks in my classes, and they seldom fail to delight and indeed, inspire. It is difficult to go wrong with this one. Highly recommend.
Cremation of Sam McGee.......2006-02-23
Went to Alaska and heard the poem, had to own it.
"There are strange things done in the midnight sun...".......2004-12-04
Robert William Service (1874-1958), the son of a Scottish banker father and English mother, moved to Canada in 1896 at the age of twenty-two. After a failed attempt at farming and several years of drifting, he got a job with the Canadian Bank of Commerce in the Whitehorse, Yukon Territory in 1904, and was later transferred to Dawson. During his time in Canada, Service wrote numerous poems about life in the north. Though the Klondike Gold Rush had been mostly over by 1898, tales of it still abounded and from these he drew much of his inspiration. His first book of poetry, "The Spell of the Yukon and Other Verses," was published in 1907 (printed under the title "Songs of a Sourdough" in London), and was followed in 1909 with "Ballads of a Cheechako." In 1912 Service left Canada to take a job as war correspondent in the Balkans. He continued to write poetry, but moved on to other subject matter and did not return to Canada. Eventually Service ended up in France, where he married and resided until his death.
An Alaskan by birth, I grew up on Robert Service's poetry. My father read selections to me at bedtime when I was little, and I was fortunate enough to hear some professional dramatic readings of Service's work as well (if you're ever lucky enough to get such an opportunity, don't pass it up!). His poems perfectly capture life in the frozen north. His imagery is so vivid that you can see the rugged beauty of the wilderness in your mind's eye as you read. You can feel the biting cold of winters, too: "You know what it's like in the Yukon wild when it's sixty-nine below; When the iceworms wriggle their purple heads through the crust of the pale blue snow; When the pine trees crack like little guns in the silence of the wood; And the icicles hang down like tusks under the parka hood" (pg. 131, from "The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill"). Someone who's never been very far north can't fully imagine what it's like, but Service's words will get you as close as is possible, short of an actual trip.
Service's work also encapsulates the spirit of the men who roamed the Yukon during the Gold Rush era. The wanderlust, the loneliness, the foolish enthusiasm, the futility, the madness and the insanity - it's all there. You'll feel "half dazed, half crazed" yourself as you read some of these pieces. It's like a window into the past, into another time and place. And what makes Service's work even greater is his magnificent wit. The poems are full of dark, morbid humor, and laced with irony. "The Ballad of Hard-Luck Henry" (pg. 112) is a great example.
This particular book, "Best Tales of the Yukon," is a combination of poems from Service's first two books, "The Spell of the Yukon" and "Ballads of a Cheechako." It consists entirely of pieces written during his Canadian period, and the editors have arranged them so as to provide a "chronological saga of the Gold Rush" (pg. ix). They've done a magnificent job, beginning with "The Men That Don't Fit In" (pg. 14) and closing with "The Law of the Yukon" (pg. 145) and "Lost" (pg. 150). In between you'll find "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" (pg. 57) and "The Cremation of Sam McGee" (pg. 126), the two that would become his most famous and most frequently recited poems. My other favorites include "The Trail of 'Ninety-Eight" (pg. 28), "The Spell of the Yukon" (pg. 119), and "The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill" (pg. 130). All in all, there are 47 great poems for you to sink your teeth into. There is also a useful glossary at the back, offering definitions of the various Yukon-isms sprinkled throughout Service's work. Definitely worth adding to any collection of poetry and literature.
A deep and inqusitive piece of literature........1999-02-19
I loved this book and encourage others to read it. This book can chill your soul and at the same time make you feel warm inside. From the Cremation of Sam McGee to the Shooting of Dan McGrew, Mr. Service had me admiring his work especially after I read 'Grin' which adopts a good perspective of life. Excellent!
Poems/ballads about the Yukon people.Sad,witty&funny.Bravo!.......1996-09-18
(1986)I'm stuck in Sinop,Turkey. At the radar station we are
bored 'cause it's winter and right now nothing is going on
when suddenly a voice from behind me starts what sounds at
first like a lethany but evolves into a ballad. No music,just
a voice, and it's telling a story...
"There's a race of men that don't fit in, A race that can't stay still;
So they break the hearts of kith and kin, And they roam the world at will.
They range the field and they rove the flood, And they climb the mountain's crest.
Theirs is the curse of the gypsy blood, And they don't know how to rest."
You'll find more stories: of love, revenge, perseverance and
faith. For the near winter season, nothing beats this
collection. Nice for reading aloud by a fire or if unavailable,
in a room with the TV off. You don't need to be a proffesional
story teller. The prose will take care of everything...
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