Green Alaska: Dreams from the Far Coast
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.65 (933 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1582430020 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 170 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-10-01 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Lord brings her fine eye to that historic journey by retracing much of the same wild Alaska shoreline from the pilothouse of a modern salmon tender. Hart Merriam, naturalist and Alaskan expert William Dall, bird artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes, ornithologist George Bird Grinnell, and photographer Edward Curtis. This luxury liners trip was romantic, but Harriman was also looking for exploitable economic opportunity.Almost one hundred years later Nancy Lord travels by boat along some of the same shoreline. The expedition captured an environment in flux. Almost one hundred years later Alaskan Nancy Lord retraces Harrimans steps, seeking to understand this centurys attitudes toward nature, landscape, and culture In 1899 the Harriman Alaska Expedition assembled a company of exceptional characters--the nature writers John Burroughs and John Muir, photographer Edward Curtis, scientist William Dall, conservationist and ethnographer George Bird Grinnell, bird artist Louis Agassiz Fuertes, geologist Henry Gannett, and others. Harrimans expedition was romantic, but the
"while the contrasts and connections between the two Alaskas she describes invite readers to consider cultural and environmental" according to Jean Hegland. This book layers anecdotes from the 1899 Harriman Alaska Expedition with the author’s own experiences as an Alaskan resident one hundred years later. Nancy Lord’s observant eye and deft insights make each brief chapter a gem in its own right, while the contrasts and connections between the two Alaskas she describes invite readers to consider cultural and environmental questions of great significance, even as they celebrate “the hope and beauty” of. Eloquence and Clarity It is set on the page as prose but Nancy Lord's prose is poetry. Thought, emotion, reflection, and insight, blend together to form a simple eloquence that is at once the state of Alaska then and now. Following a 'millennial' voyage across this vast territory, Nancy manages to make us understand the ending of the last century, attitudes toward the world, the environment, its theft in some cases, and she does it in as few words as possible. Join her on her own journey as w. "A great read on a hot summer day" according to A Customer. Though I read the library's copy, now I have to buy it. Lord, New Englander turned long-time resident of Homer, AK, traces the route of the 1898 Harriman expedition, with many glimpses of her own work on a fishing vessel and of her fellow Alaskans. Amusing vignettes of Harriman and his fellow travellers, esp. the "Two Johnnies," Muir and Burroughs, and their opposite approaches to appreciating & protecting nature. Altogether, a riviting and poignant tale of the Bring 'em
Hart Merriam, George Bird Grinnell, and William Dall, who took the opportunity to study the flora, fauna, and geology of the glacier-carved coasts of what Burroughs called "green Alaska," infusing American natural-history literature with a stream of books and articles on the then little-known North. Her graceful, vigorous book is a fine contribution to the history of science, and a welcome addition to the shelves of anyone with an interest in natural-history writing and arctic exploration. --Gregory McNamee. But more: he invited 30 more guests, "the nation's top natural scientists, mainly, but also a few practical engineering types, some cultural enthusiasts, select writers and artists and photographers." Among those 30 "faculty" were the great naturalists John Muir, John Burroughs, C. Nancy Lord, the author of the fine Alaska memoir Fishcamp, retraces the course of the Harriman expedit