Two Women in the Klondike (Classic Reprint) - Hardcover

Hitchcock, Mary

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1889963682 ISBN 13: 9781889963686

Publisher: University of Alaska Press, 2005

Synopsis

Two Women in the Klondike created a sensation when it was first published in 1899. The idea that two well-bred socialites could survive the dangers of the north thrilled nineteenth-century readers from San Francisco to New York.

When Mary Hitchcock heard about the discovery of gold in the Klondike in 1898, she left her privileged city life for the wilds of Alaska, planning to stake her own claims. She persuaded her friend Edith Van Buren to accompany her, and the two began preparations for "roughing it." The "necessities" that they brought up the Yukon River to Dawson City, Canada, included a portable bowling alley, an ice cream maker, a Great Dane named Ivan, and a full-size circus tent.

Hitchcock relates the struggles, surprises, and pleasures of traveling in the late nineteenth century in her trademark style. She describes in diary form the people she met and her impressions of rural Alaska and Dawson City. Invaluable for its detailed descriptions of manners, food, and personalities, Hitchcock's account of the Klondike Gold Rush is an outrageous adventure for general readers, armchair travelers, and anyone interested in the lives of American women in the late 1800s.

This new, abridged version includes a map of Hitchcock's northern travels and an introduction by Terrence Cole, professor of history at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

 

About this title

About the Author

Wilderness advocate and forester Robert Marshall was born in New York on January 2, 1901. He graduated from the College of Forestry at Syracuse University in 1924, earned a master's degree at Harvard University on 1925, and a Ph.D. at the John Hopkins Laboratory of Plant Physiology in 1930. Marshall began his professional career on the staff of the U.S. Forest Service in 1925 as a junior forester as the Northern Rocky Mountain Forest Experiment Station. In 1933 Marshall became the head forester of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and in 1937 the Chief of the Division of Recreation and Lands for the U.S. Forest Service. In addition to Arctic Village, he was the author of The People's Forests (1933),  Alaska Wilderness (published posthumously in 1956), and numerous influential articles and government reports on wilderness and forestry. He was well known for his long distance hiking trips and his outspoken support of the need to perserve wilderness. As one of the founding members of the Wilderness Society in 1935, he was for many years its major financial contributor. 

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Alaska Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 1889963682
• ISBN 13: 9781889963686
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 232