Get Lost in Alaska ...

Originally published in the Ketchikan Daily News, October 2020; written by Michelle Lampton.

I almost did it. Tuesday is the election and I almost fell into the trap of recommending books about politics. But, maybe, just maybe, we’re getting enough of politics everywhere else that, for today, we can use the library to not just check out books, but to “check out” ourselves for a bit. So, let’s talk about Alaska-themed literature, both fiction and non.

“Blonde Indian: An Alaska Native Memoir” by Earnestine Hayes is a popular, modern book about returning home to Tlingit culture. “Being in Being: The collected Works of a Master Haida Mythteller, Skaay of the Qquuna Qiighawaay,” translated from Haida by Robert Bringhurst, is a beautiful collection of heritage stories told in poetic verse. “Tsimshian Narratives” is a two volume set of stories and history about tricksters, shamans, heroes, and more, collected by Marius Barbeau and William Beynon.

For Alaskan popular literature, it doesn’t get more classic than Margaret Bell. We have many of her books here in the UAS Campus Library Collection, including “Watch for a Tall, White Sail,” about a young woman living with her family in a remote part of Alaska whose only contact with the outside world is a schooner that arrives a few times a year, or “Touched with Fire: Alaska’s George William Steller,” Bell’s adventure biopic of the German naturalist’s difficult expedition to the Alaskan coast.

Let’s not forget Jack London, with “Tales of the North,” a volume that contains nineteen of his stories from “White Fang” to “Call of the Wild;” the western-like tale “The Alaskan” by James Oliver Curwood; or multiple titles from Robert Service, including “The Song of the Campfire,” and “Best tales of the Yukon.”

If you’re looking for more true adventures, check out “Travels in Alaska,” in which John Muir documents his explorations of our mountains, glaciers and seas; “Shopping for Porcupine: A Life in Arctic Alaska,” by Seth Kantner; or, for you big game hunters, there’s “The Wilderness of Denali,” by Charles Sheldon, where the authors writes the true account (by campfire no less) of hunting and exploration around McKinley.

Of course, these titles represent only the ‘tip of the iceberg’ of Alaska-themed books available for checkout from the Campus Library using your First City Library Card. So stop by, or call, to find these and many more!

ASK UAS: The Campus Library will be hosting its third Ask UAS presentation of the Fall 2020 Series. Prof. Barbara Morgan will be giving a talk called, “For the Birds! A Narrated Selection of Ketchikan Birdlife” on Thursday, October 19, at 6:00pm. We are still restricted by University policy regarding physical gatherings, but Prof. Morgan will be in the Campus Library broadcasted live on video to present her talk and take your questions via Facebook Live. You don’t have to have a Facebook account to watch; simply go to facebook.com/KetchikanCampusLibrary and you’ll be able to view the broadcast live as it happens. If you have questions, please give us a call in advance at 228-4567.