Go North, Young Man, first published in 1957, is Gordon Stoddard's account of his first four years as a homesteader on Alaska's Kenai peninsula in the 1950s. From building his first cabin (with only the aid of a basic do-it-yourself pamphlet), to growing an abundance of over-sized vegetables, to hunting and foraging and surviving the long winters, Stoddard portrays a down-to-earth look at the simple life he desired and created for himself. Includes 19 pages of photographs ...

First published in 1957, this is the story of how a young West Coaster forsakes civilization for the rugged satisfactions of homesteading in Alaska.Like many other World War II veterans, Gordon Stoddard headed up the Alcan Highway because he found civilian life too tame. He had heard of easy money in construction and fishing and he was on the lookout for adventure, but most of all he wanted a homestead.Go North, Young Man tells of his first four years as a homesteader on Alas...

SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE • NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From the author of The River: In this "end-of-the-world novel more like a rapturous beginning" (San Francisco Chronicle), Hig somehow survived the flu pandemic that killed everyone he knows. His gripping story is "an ode to friendship between two men...the strong bond between a human and a dog, and a reminder of what is worth living for" (Minneapolis Star-Tribune).Hig's wife is gon...

The Horse in My Garage and Other Stories is a hilarious addition to Patrick F. McManus’s existing work in humor. The author weighs in on his childhood, everyday life, and outdoor tales with his typical exaggerated commentary that will elicit a belly laugh from all types of readers.Read about the antics of Patrick’s friends Rancid Crabtree and Retch Sweeney in such stories as “Shaping Up for the Hunt” and “Bear Hunters.” McManus plays off the recent obsession with hoarders i...

The New York Times–bestselling classic set amid the mountains and streams of early twentieth-century Montana, "as beautiful as anything in Thoreau or Hemingway" ( Chicago Tribune).When Norman Maclean sent the manuscript of A River Runs Through It and Other Stories to New York publishers, he received a slew of rejections. One editor, so the story goes, replied, "it has trees in it."Today, the title novella is recognized as one of the...

This book is a celebration of life. Its astonishing view is from the perspective of someone living a simple, isolated life in the Rocky Mountains as a mountain man. Sylvan Ambrose Hart was born in the Oklahoma Territory in 1906. In the 1930's, while still a young man, he walked into the Rocky Mountains and designed a unique life for himself in the wilds - hunting, fishing, trapping, panning gold, crafting his own tools, weapons, shelter, and clothes. For almost fifty years he lived the lif...

Guess what -- Gary Paulsen was being kind to Brian. In Guts, Gary tells the real stories behind the Brian books, the stories of the adventures that inspired him to write Brian Robeson's story: working as an emergency volunteer; the death that inspired the pilot's death in Hatchet; plane crashes he has seen and near-misses of his own. He describes how he made his own bows and arrows, and takes readers on his first hunting trips, showing the wonder and solace of nature alon...

Coming into the Country is an unforgettable account of Alaska and Alaskans. It is a rich tapestry of vivid characters, observed landscapes, and descriptive narrative, in three principal segments that deal, respectively, with a total wilderness, with urban Alaska, and with life in the remoteness of the bush.Readers of McPhee's earlier books will not be unprepared for his surprising shifts of scene and ordering of events, brilliantly combined into an organic whole. In the co...

Throughout history, many people have escaped to nature either permanently or temporarily to rest and recharge. Richard L. Proenneke, a modern-day Henry David Thoreau, is no exception. Proenneke built a cabin in Twin Lakes, Alaska in 1968 and began thirty years of personal growth, which he spent growing more connected to the wilderness in which he lived. This guide through Proenneke’s memories follows the journey that began with One Man’s Wilderness, which contains some of Proennek...

On May 4, 1919, Charlie Cook set off for a year of adventure in the Minnesota-Ontario Boundary Waters. Soon abandoned by his comfort-loving companion, the restless World War I veteran spent an enlightening year learning—often the hard way—how to paddle and sail on windy lakes, hunt and fish for food, bake "rough delicacies" in a reflector oven, and build winter-proof shelters. His how-to descriptions of trapping beaver, mink, and other game are unsurpassed in their detail.Cook also...

In 1966, Edward Hoagland made a three-month excursion into the wild country of British Columbia and encountered a way of life that was disappearing even as he chronicled it. Showcasing Hoagland’s extraordinary gifts for portraiture—his cast runs from salty prospector to trader, explorer, missionary, and indigenous guide—Notes from the Century Before is a breathtaking mix of anecdote, derring-do, and unparalleled elegy from one of the finest writers of our time.

Survival in the wilderness--Gary Paulsen writes about it so powerfully in his novels Hatchet and The River because he's lived it. These essays recount his adventures alone and with friends, along the rivers and in the woods of northern Minnesota. There, fishing and hunting are serious business, requiring skill, secrets, and inspiration. Luck, too--not every big one gets away.This book takes readers through the seasons, from the incredible taste of a spring fish fr...