by John McPhee
First published 1981
Alaska stretches beyond the lower forty-eight states as America's last great wilderness. John McPhee ventures into this vast territory to capture its reality through direct experience and careful observation. He paddles arctic rivers by kayak, fishes remote waters, and treks through backcountry terrain. McPhee investigates the search for Alaska's new state capital location and documents daily life in Eagle, a bush settlement home to one hundred residents. The Big Land has captivated people for generations with its promise of brutal cold, towering snowy peaks, roaming caribou and salmon runs, indigenous communities, wandering bears, buried gold, and million-acre expanses of untouched country. McPhee presents Alaska through the voices of its inhabitants: seasoned pioneers, working politicians, and modern frontiersmen. He reveals ordinary individuals pursuing extraordinary aspirations in this unforgiving landscape. The book delivers lasting impressions of a place where human ambition meets natural forces.
Genres: biography, nature, adventure, american-history
Vibes: intimate, lyrical, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water
Setting: Alaska, Eagle
Period: 20th-century
417 pages · Paperback · Bantam Books