He said, “the material that really gave me a chuckle and a gasp was your own publication on bicycles. It became part of his homework for the novel.
1, 1986 that, among other things, a book Terrence had compiled and edited, “Wheels on Ice,” had made a real impression. That’s not exactly how Michener worked during the three years or so that he spent on the novel, based in Sitka, but his approach to writing did require him to gather a great deal of material on Alaska history, economics and geology.Īs I continue the process of packing up my brother’s voluminous correspondence and research files, I encountered a reminder the other day of some important information that Terrence shared with Michener about Alaska history.
The reviewer claimed that it appeared Michener “hired every history, economics and geology major in the land to help amass information.” “(In his notes, Michener says that the incident is based on a real trip).” “It all sounds so convincing that you want to believe one character actually bicycles 1,000 miles along the frozen Yukon, from Dawson to Nome, to get to the Gold Rush in time to cash in,” wrote Bill Bell in 1988. Alaska is a lush, enjoyable reading experience as well as an educational one, and I truly appreciate the fact that it served up both ingredients in such abundance.A reviewer in the New York Daily News confessed to skepticism after reading of the two-wheeled conveyance pedalled across Alaska by a James Michener character in the pages of the author’s novel “Alaska.” This awakening was a very slow process however, as it took another sixty-two years before Alaska would to win its hard-fought battle for statehood in 1959. The Klondike Gold Rush of 1897-98 and subsequent gold discoveries at Dawson’s Creek, Nome and other areas initially, and finally, caught America’s eye.
In the interim, this ‘great land’ was left at the mercy of dirty politics and even dirtier politicians, lobbied by gluttonous west coast merchants making money hand over fist in their Alaskan trade ventures, which drained Alaska’s resources with no concern given to their replenishment. Secretary of State William Seward who signed the agreement for its purchase from Russia in 1867), the American government foolishly and shamefully ignored the well-being of Alaska’s people and natural resources for well over one hundred years. From its primitive beginnings on through its long and agonizing quest for statehood, I was mesmerized by the author’s rich historical detail and finely drawn, colorful characterizations of the natives and pioneers who settled this vast and often formidable land. In a novel almost as magnificent as its subject matter, Michener tells the engrossing story of Alaska (derived from the Aleut word “Alyeska” meaning “great land” or “that which the sea breaks against”).
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