Product Description

John Hildebrand sets out in a canoe . . . to explore the great riverway of northwestern Canada and Alaska. . . . The geography is closely rendered and the characters especially sharply drawn. The country is filled with mad dropouts at river fish camps, good-hearted girls in the towns, sullen natives in tumbledown villages, cranky old-timers, terrible drunks and worse moralizers who live off the wild landscape and its abundant resources. . . . This is a fine work, and Hildebrand is a fine writer.Charles E. Little, Wilderness For many of us the North has been the one place where a certain elemental experienceof land, water, and peoplecan still be had. John Hildebrands personal account of this experience has a particular freshness and poignancy. It is the record of a journey, as much inward as it is outward, and all the better for that.John Haines, author of The Stars, The Snow, The Fire A finely written account of coming to terms with ones self, of the realities of ones dreams. Recommended for anyone who would follow Thoreau into the woods, even now.Library Journal Hildebrand has every skill of mind and craft to enfold us in his experience.The New Yorker

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #496661 in Books
• Published on: 1997-02-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 260 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In a sense, this recounts a journey of expiation: Hildebrand and his wife had gone to Alaska in the early 1970s, hoping to homestead and be self-sufficient. The death of a child and breakup of the marriage forced a change of plans. Ten years later, Hildebrand returned alone, to set to rest the ghost of his dream by canoeing the length of the Yukon. He particularly wanted to meet people who had gone to the wilderness and remained. In his three-month, 2000 mile journey, Hildebrand met trappers, aging hippies, biologists, dog mushers, fishermen, Athabascan Indians, Eskimos, missionaries and politicians. He camped in abandoned cabins during rainy weather. As he approached the Delta, he was beset by wind, rain and rough water; 90 miles from the sea, he left the river, sold the canoe and flew home to Wisconsin. His book is more than an adventure story; it is a fine portrait of individual people and communities in a rugged environment. Illustrated.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In the early Seventies, dreaming of the simple life, the author wandered to Alaska, built a cabin, and taught English to Indians and Eskimos at the the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. But the dream collapsed, and he left the area. Ten years later he returned, seeking the "North that had eluded" him. He canoed the length of the Yukon River, drifted into other peoples' lives, and sought how life there used to behow for some it continues to be. The result is a vivid, sometimes lyrical picture of the Alaska of homesteaders, fishers, woodcutters, and small town people, who live off the land in a way the author could not. It also is a finely written account of coming to terms with one's self, of the realities of one's dreams. Recommended for anyone who would follow Thoreau into the woods, even now.Roland Person, Southern Illinois Univ. Lib., Carbondale
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"A traveler whose wilderness-whetted loneliness makes his encounters with strangers all the more piquant."-Peter Wild, Sierra -- Peter Wild, Sierra

Customer Reviews

Excellent. A marvel of a tale.
Having once been an Alaskan traveler myself, I found myself slightly skeptical before plucking this tattered book off the shelf. Everything I'd read of modern Alaska seemed wrong, off-key, and too liberal or too commercialized. But after skimming through a few pages, I was hooked. Never before have I found such wonderful, accurate descriptions of the land, its people, and the emotional tracks it leaves on a person. Somehow, I assumed I was alone in my journeys and my memoirs of Alaska, and unable to share them with people. Here is a man who has weaved together a beautiful adventure, honest and simple. I felt as though I was reading a diary of my own excursions in the North. Reading the River is definitely one of the best books I have ever read. I recommend it to anyone who has ever wondered what draws people away from the city, for those living in the city who craves the wild, and to every dreamer, explorer, and 'old-timer'.

Sad but well written tour of the people on the Yukon

A well written book; good primer for anyone planning a Yukon River trip, or anyone who just likes good adventure reading. Ride down the river with author in his canoe-with-motor and see Alaska through the eyes of a now-grown hippie returning to Alaska to find the self he left behind years before.

A "coming of middle age" adventure down the Yukon
Hildebrand takes you from Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, across into Alaska, to the Arctic Circle at Fort Yukon, and through nearly the whole state of Alaska as he canoes down the Yukon River. Along the way you meet ordinary people with legendary stories of the intense lonliness of winter, of bear attacks, of battles with the US and Alaskan state governments, and of survival. You also get a glimpse into John's recently failed marraige, his life in Fairbanks, and his abandoned homestead near Denali National Park. Even for those who don't own SUVs or long to take on a thousand-mile canoe trip, this book is an intellectual adventure well worth the price of admission.