Books, Biographies & Memoirs, Regional U.S., General AAS

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J.r. Moehringer
Tender Bar, The
by Hyperion (CD) (Release Date: 2005-09-01)

William L. Iggiagruk Hensley
Fifty Miles from Tomorrow: A Memoir of Alaska and the Real People
by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (Hardcover) (Release Date: 2008-12-23)

The inspiring true story of one man's quest to preserve and defend his people's Ilitqusiat—Native Spirit.  As a young man growing up on the shores of Kotzebue Sound, twenty-nine miles north of the Arctic Circle, William L. Iggiagruk Hensley learned to live the way his ancestors had for thousands of years. Like a sponge, he absorbed the old stories and sayings, the threads of wisdom passed down through the generations. Though Hensley eventually left Alaska behind to pursue his education in the Lower 48, he carried with him the hardiness, the good humor, and the tenacity that had helped his people flourish on the wild tundra. In 1971, after years of Hensley’s tireless lobbying, the United States conveyed forty-four million acres and earmarked nearly $1 billion for use by Alaska’s native peoples. The law insured that all the American Indians of Alaska would be compensated for the incursion of the U.S. government upon their way of life. Unlike their relatives to the south, the ...

Seth Kantner
Shopping for Porcupine: A Life in Arctic Alaska
by Milkweed Editions (Hardcover)

His story begins with the arrival of his father, Howard Kantner, to the remote Arctic of the 1950s and ends with him as a grown man settled in the same landscape. Through a series of moving essays and vivid photographs, ranging in subject from family histories to hunting stories, celebrations of people and places to a lament over a majestic wilderness rapidly disappearing, Shopping for Porcupine provides a compelling, intimate view of America’s last frontier — the same place that captivated so many readers of Ordinary Wolves.

James Campbell
The Final Frontiersman: Heimo Korth and His Family, Alone in Alaska's Arctic Wilderness
by Atria (Paperback)

Hundreds of hardy people have tried to carve a living in the Alaskan bush, but few have succeeded as consistently as Heimo Korth. Originally from Wisconsin, Heimo traveled to the Arctic wilderness in his feverous twenties. Now, more than three decades later, Heimo lives with his wife and two daughters approximately 200 miles from civilization -- a sustainable, nomadic life bounded by the migrating caribou, the dangers of swollen rivers, and by the very exigencies of daily existence. In The Final Frontiersman, Heimo's cousin James Campbell chronicles the Korth family's amazing experience, their adventures, and the tragedy that continues to shape their lives. With a deft voice and in spectacular, at times unimaginable detail, Campbell invites us into Heimo's heartland and home. The Korths wait patiently for a small plane to deliver their provisions, listen to distant chatter on the radio, and go sledding at 44° below zero -- all the while cultivating their hard-learned survival ...

Lee Morgan
The Reaper's Line: Life and Death on the Mexican Border
by Rio Nuevo (Hardcover)

A true story of violence, drugs, human smuggling and dirty politicians along the Mexican/American border.When he was 14, Lee Morgan learned to shoot a rifle from a young Marine who later became the "Texas Tower Sniper." Four years later, Lee was conducting CIA assassination missions in Vietnam. Then he spent the next 31 years on the U.S.-Mexico border as a federal agent, where the struggle against smugglers of drugs and starving human beings is as harrowing as anything Lee encountered in Vietnam.The Reaper's Line is a non-fiction account of unparalleled official corruption, mass murders, gunfights, treason, betrayal, and government wrongdoing.

Struggle and Survival in Colonial America
by University of California Press (Paperback)

Here are the fascinating stories of twenty-three little-known but remarkable inhabitants of the Spanish, English, and Portuguese colonies of the New World between the 16th and the 19th centuries. Women and men of all the races and classes of colonial society may be seen here dealing creatively and pragmatically (if often not successfully) with the challenges of a harsh social environment.Such extraordinary "ordinary" people as the native priest Diego Vasicuio; the millwright Thomas Peters; the rebellious slave Gertrudis de Escobar; Squanto, the last of the Patuxets; and Micaela Angela Carillo, the pulque dealer, are presented in original essays. Works of serious scholarship, they are also written to catch the fancy and stimulate the historical imagination of readers. The stories should be of particular interest to students of the history of women, of Native Americans, and of Black people in the Americas.The Editors' introduction points out the fundamental unities in the histories ...

David Backes
A Wilderness Within: The Life of Sigurd F. Olson
by Univ Of Minnesota Press (Paperback)

This well-balanced assessment of Sigurd Olson (1899-1982) pays as much attention to his spiritual quest as to his activism in defense of America's natural resources with such groups as The Wilderness Society and the National Parks Association. Olson found a sense of completeness while hiking, canoeing, and hunting in the northern Midwest. He conveys these feelings in influential books such as The Singing Wilderness, which inspired a generation of younger nature writers. David Backes, who knew Olson in his later years, captures his personality and evaluates his achievements in lucid prose.

Sean Michael Flynn
Land of the Radioactive Midnight Sun: A Cheechako's First Year in Alaska
by Thomas Dunne Books (Hardcover)

"In New York City, a Cheechako (chee CHA-ko) would be the kid who just fell off the turnip truck. No street smarts. A pink windbreaker. A subway map sticking from his back pocket...In Alaska, a Cheechako is even easier to spot. He's the guy with his tongue stuck to a metal pole. A tenderfoot. A greenhorn."Land of the Radioactive Midnight Sun is the story of Lt. Sean Michael Flynn as he tries to survive his first year in Alaska. With romantic notions of Jack London and Bush piloting, Lt. Flynn requests a transfer to Eielson Air Force Base outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. He is a bit unnerved at how easy the transfer goes through.From a rugby game on a frozen river to living across from Santa's Village to random moose attacks to soaring over the Bush in an F-16, Land of the Radioactive Midnight Sun is a hilarious trial-by-many-errors account of what it takes to become a true Alaskan.

Oklahoma Rough Rider: Billy Mcginty's Own Story
by University of Oklahoma Press (Paperback)

Recounts McGinty's exploits on the battlefield and later on the stage. It contains his firsthand account of how he began cowboying at fourteen and went on to become a world champion bronco buster. After the Spanish-American War, he performed in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show and won the Cowboy Hall of Fame's Great Westerner award. Yet his colorful career has remained largely untold - until now.

Josie Gray, Tess Gallagher
Barnacle Soup: And Other Stories from the West of Ireland
by Eastern Washington University Press (Hardcover)

Ireland is known throughout the world for its rich and vibrant storytelling. Josie Gray is a proud inheritor of this tradition, a yarn-spinner whose evocative and authentic stories are steeped in the rural west of Ireland community to which he belongs. Beautifully crafted, subtly paced, and richly textured, Gray's stories vividly and affectionately bring to life a disparate cast of characters and recreate the fabric of their everyday lives. Disputes, laughter, courting, death, drink and general all-round skulduggery are the order of the day as Gray skilfully weaves together myth and fact, truth and near-truth. Captivated by these tales, acclaimed poet Tess Gallagher worked with Gray to give his oral stories written form. The result is a stunning collection that preserves the intimacy, melody and rhythm of Gray's voice.

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