Announcements
49 at Last! by Claus-M Naske
49 at Last! (350 pages) reads like a plot-line for a political thriller; author Dr. Claus-M. Naske reveals how the Alaska statehood movement struggled through most of the 20th Century, decade after decade, always blocked by powerful special interests. Finally, the unrelenting pro-statehood forces won support from President Dwight D. Eisenhower–a breakthrough for their cause–and…
Read MoreNorth to the Future, by Dermot Cole
Alaska became a state in 1959 after nearly a century of federal rule and domination by powerful mining, timber, and canned-salmon interests. At last the people of Alaska would direct their own destiny. But would they? North to the Future (224 pages) documents the first fifty years, as Alaska’s fate continued to be influenced by…
Read MoreSurviving the Island of Grace, by Leslie Leyland Fields
Surviving the Island of Grace (352 pages) is a powerfully rendered story of a twenty-year-old newlywed transplanted from New Hampshire to a remote island in the immense Gulf of Alaska. Here, she must learn to live communally with her new family in primitive conditions without running water, electricity, or contact with the outside world. Even…
Read MoreSurviving Alaska, by Mary Ames
One can only hope never to face the many life-threatening dangers and just plain annoyances that journalist, pilot, and outdoorswoman Mary Ames warns about in Surviving Alaska (160 pages), a guide that is both useful and entertaining. You’ll learn… what to do if you find yourself in the path of an oncoming avalanche… what to…
Read MoreAlaska Blues, by Joe Upton
This is Upton’s award winning account of a commercial fishing season in Southeast Alaska – the lonely hours at sea as well as the close community of the fishing fleet; the sudden, violent storms and glorious days of sun; the difficult, frenzied work and quiet moments of contemplation. In this new third edition from Epicenter…
Read MoreSaving for the Future, by David Rose
David Rose became the first director of the Alaska Permanent Fund, playing a crucial role in managing the multi-billion dollar savings account created by voters after the discovery of oil. Saving for the Future (254 pages) is his account of the formative days of the fund and the inner workings of a truly unique institution.…
Read MoreMoments Rightly Placed, by Ray Hudson
Along a thousand-mile chain of treeless and windswept islands, Unalaska is perched at the end of the world, or, as some prefer to say, the beginning. In 1964, Ray Hudson, 22, landed in Unalaska village with a brand-new college degree, eager to teach. The Aleuts had seen many outsiders who had come but seldom stayed…
Read MoreBoom Town Boy, by Jack de Yonge
This is the witty, ironic, and deliciously outspoken coming-of-age memoir of Jack de Yonge set in Fairbanks, Alaska–a once thriving little mining town slowly dying in the remote center of the vast territory in 1934. As Jack’s dad liked to say, no matter what direction you went out of town, you soon arrived in Nowhere.…
Read MoreTales of Alaska’s Bush Rat Governor, by Jay Hammond
Jay Hammond’s hilarious, adventure-packed autobiography is filled with candid insights on the independent people and faraway places of our nation’s largest state. “In 1946 Hammond, a Methodist minister’s son from New York State and a Marine pilot during WW II, realized his dream of moving to Alaska. Once there he had many jobs, including trapping,…
Read MoreKay Fanning’s Alaska Story, by Kay Fanning and Katherine Field Stephen
In 1965, Kay Woodruff Field, 38, a newly divorced former debutante once described as the “Grace Kelly of Chicago,” loaded her three children into a Buick station wagon and headed north to start a fresh life in Alaska. Little did she know that she would became the most influential woman in Alaska. Alaska Story (…
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