The Reader's Companion to Alaska

A collection on short accounts and excerpts from books on like in Alaska, generally historical and always engrossing. A read that is had to put down and to wonder how you would have faired in these situations.

I bought this for a dear friend, who watches all of the Alaska shows on TV, so she can 'read along' depending on the shows she watched. I think she will enjoy it.

Excellent preparation for a trip to Alaska, great background material as well as personal first hand accounts of places and sights throughout this amazing state.

This is a wonderful compilation of writings by some our most prominent authors of their first (and lasting) impressions of the last American wilderness, Alaska. It prepares children and their families for the overwhelming gift we have recieved through the preservation of this beautiful land and for the warmth and welcome they will receive from Alaskaan natives.

Very enjoyable, enlightening, educational and an exciting book. I really appreciated the variety of writers perspectives.

Not what I was expecting as a travel resource

Full of valuable info.

PERFECT GIFTEssays of the Inside Passage, Anchorage, Fairbanks and Denali and more from 1879 to 1995I got this as a gift for friends who were taking a cruise of Alaska and ended up getting a copy for myself. The five-page diary from a man known only as "V. Swanson," who perished in a cabin in the wilderness in 1917, was fascinating. Most were taken from earlier published works and the editor gives you that information at the end. Would have enjoyed short biographies of the authors, especially those I have not read before.JOHN MUIR 1879FREDERICK SCHWATKA 1886MARGARET MURIE 1911aMARGARET MURIE 1911bSWANSON 1917ANNE MORROW LINDBERGH 1931ANNE MORROW LINDBERGH 1935ERNIE PYLE 1937CONSTANCE HELMERICKS 1941DOROTHY LAWRENCE MINKLER 1941BERTON ROUCHE 1966JEAN ASPEN 1971JOHN MCPHEE 1976JIM CHRISTY 1980JOE MCGINNISS 1980JAMES RAMSEY 1983LIBBY RIDDLES AND TIM JONES 1985 IditarodBARRY LOPEZ 1986JOHN HAINES 1989RICHARD ADAMS CAREY 1989CHARLES KURALT 1990FRED HATFIELD 1990TOM KIZZIA 1991TIM CAHILL 1991PIERRE BERTON 1994JONATHAN WATERMAN 1994JON KRAKAUER 1994KRIS CAPPS 1995Publisher Comments:The Alaskan frontier is revealed at its most inspiring and unforgiving, through the eyes of its awestruck visitors. An enraptured John Muir first glimpses Glacier Bay; Jon Krakauer marvels at the sight of a grizzlys footprints in the snow; Erma Bombeck comments on the "cruise from hell," and more. Map.Edited Alan Ryan (1997) Inspiring and unforgiving, Alaska is vividly revealed in this collection of twenty-eight eyewitness reports from intrepid travelers to America's last great frontier. An enraptured John Muir first glimpses Glacier Bay in 1879. John McPhee encounters kamikaze bush pilots, and Anne Morrow Lindbergh is amazed simply at the sight of a road after a long flight over the trackless wastes of the North Slope. / Covers the majesty and terror of the great frontier.