Alaska Wilderness Exploring the Central Brooks Range

About this book

The classic wilderness guide from the 1930s, which has remained in print for over 50 years. This third edition has a foreword by Rick Bass.

From the publisher's announcement:

Exploring the great wilderness of Alaska's Brooks Range was Robert Marshall's joy and delight during the decade between 1929 and 1939. Marshall traveled this spectacular country, from the Upper Koyukuk drainage to the Arctic Divide, making maps, recording scientific data, and exalting in the beauty of that incredibly pristine landscape. Although his early death at thirty-eight ended an exceptional life too early, he left journals and letters to describe his favorite place on earth. These were edited by his brother George Marshall and were compiled to create this classic of environmental literature, now in its third edition after nearly fifty years in print and with a new foreword by Rick Bass.

"Reading this poignant volume again emphasizes to me how crucial it is to keep exploitation out of this extraordinary part of our planet, so that it can serve as a lasting beacon for America's wilderness."--Edgar Wayburn, M.D., five-time president of the Sierra Club and author of Your Land and Mine

"A book for every man and woman who loves the wilderness. One who reads this volume walks with Bob Marshall on treacherous trails, climbs with him to the top of unnamed mountains, struggles with him to escape the swift rise of dangerous rivers, faces grizzly bears unarmed, feels the joy of being alone in an empty wilderness, and sees through the poet's eyes the great glories of the Alaskan mountains."--William O. Douglas

Contents

List of Illustrations Foreword to the Third Edition Foreword to the Second Edition Introduction to the Second Edition Introduction to the First Edition 1. The North Fork of the Koykuk 2. The Arctic Divide 3. Mushing 4. Wintertrip into New Country 5. The Alatna and the John 6. Toward Doonerak 7. North Doonerak, Amawk, Alhamblar, and Apoon Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Robert Marshall (1901-1939) was a prodigious hiker who took a Master of Forestry degree from Harvard, became Director of Forestry of the Office of Indian Affairs, and was Chief of the Division of Recreation & Lands from 1937 to his premature death in 1939. He is best remembered as a major figure in the early generation of environmental activists (he was a contemporary of Aldo Leopold) and as a cofounder, in 1935, of the Wilderness Society. The Wilderness Society receives all royalties from the sale of this book. Rick Bass is the author of many books including Caribou Rising: Defending the Porcupine Herd, Gwich'in Culture, and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (Sierra Club, 2004), and the forthcoming novel The Diezmo (2005).