Posts Tagged ‘Memoir’
Young Men Go North, by Joe Upton
Young Men Go North, by Joe Upton “I went up on the Star of Alaska in 1918.” It was 1965 and an old timer was spinning a tale for 18-year-old Joe Upton. Of sailing up from San Francisco to Alaska’s remote and austere Bristol Bay aboard a square-rigged ship loaded with Chinese cannery workers, Norwegian…
Read MoreHardship Alaska, by Donald Proffit
Hardship Alaska, by Donald Proffit Some memories of his two years of alternative service as a Vietnam-era conscientious objector continue to haunt Donald Proffit, aka Buzz, in unresolved conversations and partings over dinners and by front doors, in beds and at bars. Others, however, have been exorcized completely, leaving him with a better understanding of who…
Read MoreIt’s Only Fishing, by Joseph Jackson
It’s Only Fishing, by Joseph Jackson 2020 was a year of change. Caught between occupations and a global pandemic, 24-year-old Joe Jackson decided to write an essay for every fly-fishing trip he took. And just like the fishing itself, these essays drift from the metaphysical to the wholly matter-of-fact; they chronicle the spontaneous spectacles of…
Read MoreOur Summer with the Eskimos, by Constance Helmericks
Our Summer with the Eskimos, by Constance Helmericks In the fall of 1944, Constance and Harmon “Bud” Helmericks built a cabin and overwintered in Alaska’s remote Brooks Range. With spring melt, they resumed their odyssey north, intent on crossing the Continental Divide to explore the arctic barrens beyond. Our Summer with the Eskimos, Connie’s third…
Read MoreOur Alaskan Winter, by Constance Helmericks
Our Alaskan Winter, by Constance Helmericks Our Alaskan Winter completes Constance Helmericks’s bestselling trilogy about the 26-month trek she and her husband, Bud Helmericks, made across the top of northern Alaska. In 1945 the poorly-clad couple are afoot on the Arctic coast as winter descends. They have survived a year on foot alone in the…
Read MoreSurviving the Island of Grace, by Leslie Leyland Fields
Surviving the Island of Grace, by Leslie Leyland Fields Surviving the Island of Grace is a beautiful and haunting memoir of a woman who left the East Coast and moved to Alaska looking for a new life. In brilliant prose, Leslie Leyland Fields tells her story of adapting to life on a wilderness island without…
Read MoreWe Live in Alaska, by Constance Helmericks
We Live in Alaska, by Constance Helmericks Originally published in 1944, We Live in Alaska is the first book by acclaimed author, Constance Helmericks. At twenty-four, Connie and her young husband, Harmon “Bud” Helmericks, set off from Fairbanks, Alaska in a homemade canoe. Paddling down the Tanana and into the great Yukon River, they leave…
Read MoreFireweed, by Nellie Buxton Picken
Ed McLauren has fought his whole life: to build the Lazy Ear ranch, to pass responsible range management legislation, and to expose the unscrupulous and greedy developers who seek to rob the N’Chi-lix-czin of their birthright. In Fireweed (286 pages), Ed perseveres to speaks out in favor of controlled brush-burning to unwilling ears, while discomfited…
Read MoreJames J. Hill: A Great Life in Brief, by Stewart Holbrook
James J. Hill (158 pages), the “Empire Builder,” (1838-1916) was a Canadian-American railroad executive with the Great Northern Railway, responsible for building railways across the northern US. Part visionary, part robber baron, part buccaneer, Stewart Holbrook brings his story to life, in brief, as well as the lives of the other movers and shakers in…
Read MorePeople of the Noatak, by Claire Fejes
In 1946, Clair Fejes moved from New York City, where she had been exhibiting in the A.C.A. Gallery, to Fairbanks, Alaska. She ultimately became an artist in a pioneering community, and traveled to a Noatak hunting camp on the edge of the Kotzebue Sound, where she was irrevocably inspired by the people and landscape of…
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