A Schoolteacher in Old Alaska: The Story of Hannah Breece - Hardcover

Breece, Hannah

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0679441344 ISBN 13: 9780679441342

Publisher: Random House, 1996

Synopsis

Over fifty years ago Hannah Breece bestowed upon her great niece, Jane Jacobs, her manuscript, roughly culled together from diaries and letters from when she was a school teacher in Alaska and the Yukon.  In the summer of 1994, Ms. Jacobs traveled to Alaska to do the research necessary to complete her great aunt's book.

In 1904, Hannah Breece set off for Alaska, where she was sent by the American government to teach Aleuts, Dina'ina, Athabascans, and people of mixed-European and Native blood.  She remained in Alaska until 1918 and in this book tells her story.  Diary-like in is mingling of domestic matters, work, public events and chance encounters, Hannah Breece's narrative is spiced with litany of adventures, for she was a women who went anywhere and stood up to anybody.

What Hannah Breece could never have guessed was just how relevant her story is today, both in its study of an independent woman and in its early clues to white North America's treatment of the Native populations.  In her introduction and comprehensive notes on the book, Jane Jacobs examines her great aunt's story and reveals and illuminates the mysteries behind this most unusual life.

About this title

From the Back Cover:

Hannah Breece braved the Alaskan wilderness nearly a century ago to teach native children how to become Americans. A proud and fiercely independent woman, she struggled against great odds to establish federally sponsored schools in remote settlements. This is her own story of her many adventures on the Alaskan frontier. Breece compiled a draft of her experiences from her diaries and letters, but never completed the project. Before she died, she entrusted the manuscript to her great-niece Jane Jacobs, and this delightful book is the results. Jane Jacobs visited the communities her great-aunt described to fill in some of the gaps in her story. Her original research complements Hannah Breece's story to give us a vivid picture of old Alaska, of the infant settlements of Juneau, Kodiak, Seward and Fairbanks, and of the amazing woman who conquered its frozen wilderness, loved its children and, for nearly fifteen years, made it her home.

About the Author:

Born in Pennsylvania in1859, Hannah Breece taught on Indian reservations in midwest America before accepting a government post to teach in Alaska.

Jane Jacobs is the author of several books, including the Death And Life of Great American Cities, Cities And The Wealth of Nations, and most recently, the bestselling Systems of Survival.  She lives in Toronto.

About this edition

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0679441344
• ISBN 13: 9780679441342
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 302