what is alaska? rugged homeland of hardy Native Americans, former Russian colony, site of the only WWII battle to take place on American soil…wait, WWII battlefield? believe it the blind spot most of us have about alaska is almost as vast as its geography: it’s roughly seven times the size of the united kingdom. In 1943, one of the hardest and least known American battles of the war took place in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska. Discovering this little-known historical fact forced me to study Alaska’s remarkable history and eventually write my second novel, a tale of wartime survival and devotion, The Wind Is Not a River.
alaska is a place on the very fringes of the american urge to “go west, young man, and grow with the country,” the exhortation made famous by 19th-century author horace greeley. Greeley’s advice soon came to be understood in popular culture as: “Go west, young man, and find your fame and fortune.” Alaska is a place apart from the contiguous United States, sharing more in common with Canada’s Yukon Territory and British Columbia. it’s a place of big dreams and harsh realities, jaw-dropping scenery, curious politics (including a long-standing independence party), midnight summer sun, and surprisingly short winter days. Alaska also offers the increasingly rare opportunity to live in close proximity to vast expanses of wilderness. The following list includes books I discovered while living (briefly) in Alaska and while collecting research for my novel. this collection of fiction, non-fiction, and verse has found a permanent home on my bookshelf.
You are reading: Best books about alaska
1. entering the country by john mcphee
This book, more than any other I have ever read, accurately reflected for me the stark realities and vast possibilities facing Alaska near the end of the 20th century, while also giving me a glimpse of what the condition. mcphee is a great master of non-fiction narrative. Required reading for anyone who wants to learn about the big issues and petty politics of America’s largest state.
2. in nature by jon krakauer
A bestselling book and critically acclaimed film, Into the Wild tells the story of a young man’s search for meaning in nature that ends up on an abandoned bus in Alaska. the book is about much more than the state itself. It’s also about what people bring to Alaska – disaffection, idealism, the quest for reinvention and redemption – that ends up being swallowed up by one of the wildest places in North America.
3. where the sea breaks your back by corey ford
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This is an extraordinary and compelling account of a Russian expedition of 1741-1742. Ford vividly recounts the story of naturalist Georg Wilhelm Steller’s voyage to the Aleutian Islands and what would eventually become the colony of Russian America. wonderful writing and gripping accounts of the Russian discovery of the new world.
4. travel in alaska by john muir
The Scottish-American naturalist and explorer turned up in Alaska 138 years after Steller, just a dozen years after the United States bought Alaska from the cash-strapped Russians for about two cents an acre. This insightful, enthusiastic, and closely watched travelogue offers description and language as grand as the place itself. “for the lover of pure wild nature, alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world… it seems as if we should finally arrive at the paradise of poets, the abode of the blessed.”
5. sourdough songs by robert service
service, a British-Canadian poet and writer, was known as “the bard of the yukon”. Ok, so it’s not alaska proper, but canada’s state and yukon territory are kissing cousins, sharing much in the way of folklore and culture. And most prospectors had to travel through Alaska to reach the Klondike goldfields. service wrote colorful and compulsively entertaining verse about gold rush life up north. Alaskans try to claim it as their own. As a graduate of Robert Service High School in Anchorage, Alaska, I set out to memorize the cremation of Service’s Sam McGee. I still have several verses going around in my head.
6. white fang of jack london
one of american writer jack london’s most popular books is also set in the yukon during the time of the klondike gold rush. The story follows the life story of a wolf-dog hybrid who finds his way from the chaos of famine and violence, both in the natural world and on the jagged edge of human society, to some kind of redemption in a life of domesticity in the care of a gentile man. brutal and exciting.
7. the thousand mile war : world war ii in alaska and the aleutians by brian garfield
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There are numerous nonfiction accounts of the war in Alaska; First and foremost among these is Garfield’s excellent and compulsively readable military history of what some call the “Forgotten War.” richly detailed and deeply researched, it deserves a much wider audience.
8. Properly Placed Moments: A Memoir of Ray Hudson’s Aleutian
A sensitive and insightful account of 28 years living in the Aleutian Islands from an outsider’s perspective. I believe that the best reportage is the one that involves a writer immersing himself in a place, culture and time. these days, standing still and letting history unfold is hard to pull off and increasingly rare. Ray Hudson offers an insightful and personal insight into Aleut culture in this magnificent memoir.
9. call of the wild by jack london
A novel that preceded White Fang, London’s Call of the Wild tells an equally gripping tale of sled dogs and men set in the Klondike. unlike white fang, with its final redemption, the call of the wild details is a fall from a civilized state to a primitive state. Influenced by both Charles Darwin and Friedrich Nietzsche, London’s most famous work is rich in symbolism and imagery, a mix of allegory and fable about “survival of the fittest.” This classic and timeless tale of the mythical North secured London’s place in the canon of American literature.
10. passage to juneau by jonathan raban
The British-born journalist and novelist takes readers on a personal and physical journey through a fascinating history and waterways to the state that bills itself as “the final frontier.” Much of what Alaska really is can only be understood through what it takes to get there. Before the advent of scheduled air service, what one had to do to get to this place profoundly affected his literature. Alaska was one of the last places in North America to be mapped and explored. as raban well knows, the trip to alaska can still be transformative.