This collection of Alaskan adventures begins with a newspaper article written by John Muir during his first visit to Alaska in 1879, when the sole U.S. government representative in all the territory's 586,412 square miles was a lone customs official in Sitka. It closes with accounts of the gold rush and the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle. Jean Meaux has gathered a superb collection of articles and stories that captivated American readers when they were first published and that will continue to entertain us today. The authors range from Charles Hallock (the founder of Forest and Stream, a precursor of Field and Stream) to New York society woman Mary Hitchcock, who traveled with china, silver, and a 2,800 square foot tent. After explorer Henry Allen wore out his boots, he marched barefoot as he continued mapping the Tanana River, and Episcopal Archdeacon Hudson Stuck mushed by dog sled in Arctic winters across a territory encompassing 250,000 miles of the northern interior.
Although the United States acquired Alaska in 1867, it took more than a decade for American writers and explorers to focus attention on a territory so removed from their ordinary lives. These writers-adventurers, tourists, and gold seekers-would help define the nation's perception of Alaska and would contribute to an image of the state that persists today. This collection unearths early writings that offer a broad view of American encounters with Alaska accompanied by Meaux's lively and concise introductions. The present-day adventurer will find much to inspire exploration, while students of the American West can gain new access to this valuable trove of pre-Gold Rush Alaska archives.
For more information go to: http://www.inpursuitofalaska.com
Foreword by:
Stephen W. Haycox
Edited by:
Jean Morgan Meaux
Imprint: University of Washington Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 23mm
Weight: 454g
ISBN: 9780295992884
ISBN 10: 0295992883
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 15 July 2013
Audience:
General/trade
,
Adult education
,
ELT Advanced
,
Tertiary & Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Foreword by Stephen Haycox Preface: Jumping Off the End of the Earth Acknowledgments Note on Original Sources PART I. ROMANTIC VOYAGE: A TOUR OF SOUTHEASTERN ALASKA 1. John Muir, Fort Wrangel, Alaska, August 8, 1879 2. Charles Hallock, A Great Day in Sitka 3. C. C. Hine, The Patriarch and His Little Detective 4. Septima M. Collis, The Alaska Barnum's Dancers 5. Charles M. Taylor, Jr., Riding the Rails through White Pass Canyon PART II. UNTAMED ALASKA: INTO THE VAST UNKNOWN 6. Caroline Willard, Chilcat Mission, Haines, Alaska 7. Lieutenant Henry T. Allen, Living Upon the Country 8. H. W. Seton Karr, Escape from Icy Bay 9. John Bremner, Living Off the Enemy 10. Herbert L. Aldrich, Whaling with the Fleet of 1887 11. Harry de Windt, Perilous Crawl Up the Chilkoot 12. Captain William Abercrombie, One Night on Valdez Glacier 13. Robert Dunn, From Nowhere to Nowhere 14. Agnes Herbert, Invitation to a Card Game 15. Hudson Stuck, Mistakes at Sixty Below PART III. INEXHAUSTIBLE OPTIMISM: THE MAD RUSH FOR GOLD 16. Ernest Ingersoll, Outfit for an Argonaut 17. Robert C. Kirk, Heartbreak on the White Pass 18. Mary E. Hitchcock, Ho for the Land of Gold! 19. J. D. Winchester, The Mosquitoes' Bugle on the Koyukuk 20. Josiah Edward Spurr, A Bureaucrat Comes to Call 21. Joseph Grinnell, Pluck on the Kowak 22. May Kellogg Sullivan, No Time for Sonatas 23. M. Clark, Playing for Stakes 24. Edward J. Devine, The Great White Silence 25. Addison M. Powell, The Alien God of Gold 26. Arthur Arnold Dietz, On the Other Side of Disenchantment Bay 27. John F. Stacey, Twenty-One Days from Rampart City Epilogue: A Cabin on the Edge of the Forest Chronology of Alaska History through 1910 Bibliography
Jean Morgan Meaux lived in Alaska from 1971 to 1985, where she earned a master's degree from the University of Alaska Anchorage and did freelance writing for the Anchorage Daily News.
Reviews for In Pursuit of Alaska: An Anthology of Travelers' Tales, 1879-1909
"""In Pursuit of Alaska….is clearly a labor of love beautifully realized by the University of Washington Press."" -- Eric Heyne * Western American Literature * ""In Pursuit of Alaska: An Anthology of Travelers’ Tales, 1879-1909 is a lively and fascinating collection filled with exceptional prose that will give modern readers a taste of Americans’ first encounters with the North…For anyone interested in Alaska history, or even just exceptional writing, In Pursuit of Alaska is an absolutely essential volume."" -- David A. James * Fairbanks Daily News-Miner * ""Offers travel writing by explorers, tourists, adventure seekers, and gold miners who traversed Alaska when it was truly the last frontier."" * Publishers Weekly * ""Theirs are voices not often heard, but which illumine an important period of Alaska's development with color and verve. A collection compiled with intelligence, and well worth trekking into for all those intrigued by our still-enigmatic uppermost corner."" -- Michelle Anne Schingler * Foreword * ""This is a terrific book, with archival photographs and smart, informative introductions for the various travelers' accounts."" -- Mike Dillon * City Living * ""Each excerpt is supported by notes about the writer's background that - along with historical photographs - complement these accounts of the lives of early Alaska visitors."" -- Stephanie Hsieh * Alaska Airlines *"
