Synopses & Reviews
In his square-sterned canoe, Alaska resident Dan O'Neill set off from Dawson, Yukon Territory, onetime site of the Klondike gold rush, to trace the majestic Yukon River. His journey down river to Circle City, Alaska, is more than one man's voyage into northern wilderness; it's an expedition into the history of the river and its land, and a record of the inimitable and little-known inhabitants of the region.
In A Land Gone Lonesome, O'Neill blends natural history with human history into a piece of brilliant literary travel writing. Though he spends much of his time on the river, at the heart of O'Neill's story are his forays into the Yukon wilderness and into the lives of a few souls still clinging to the old ways in a beautiful and hostile country-men like "Charley River" Charlie in his dog-fur vest and "The Iron Man of the Yukon" Percy DeWolfe even as government policies are extinguishing people like them. More than just colorful anachronisms, these wilderness dwellers are a living archive of North American pioneer values. As O'Neill encounters these characters, he finds himself drawn into the bare-knuckle melodrama of their outmoded lives-and further back still into the very origins of the Yukon River world.
With the singular perspective of an insider, O'Neill has painted an intelligent, rhapsodic and, ultimately, probably the last-portrait of the Yukon and its authentic inhabitants.
Review
"O'Neill describes the decaying cabins and disappearing people....[T]his is the human history of a place where few people have ever lived." Library Journal
Review
"Another writerly gold strike in the Klondike." Kirkus Reviews
Synopsis
Part travelogue, part adventure, part love letter to a vanishing world, this is an expedition into the heart of our past in the tradition of Coming into the Country and Goodbye to a River
Synopsis
In his square-sterned canoe, Alaskan author Dan O’Neill set off down the majestic Yukon River, beginning at Dawson, Yukon Territory, site of the Klondike gold rush. The journey he makes to Circle City, Alaska, is more than a voyage into northern wilderness, it is an expedition into the history of the river and a record of the inimitable inhabitants of the region, historic and contemporary. A literary kin of John Muir’s Travels in Alaska and John McPhee’s Coming into the Country, A Land Gone Lonesome is the book on Alaska for the new century. Though he treks through a beautiful and hostile wilderness, the heart of O’Neill’s story is his exploration of the lives of a few tough souls clinging to the old ways-even as government policies are extinguishing their way of life. More than just colorful anachronisms, these wilderness dwellers-both men and women-are a living archive of North American pioneer values. As O’Neill encounters these natives, he finds himself drawn into the bare-knuckle melodrama of frontier life-and further back still into the very origins of the Yukon river world. With the rare perspective of an insider, O’Neill here gives us an intelligent, lyrical-and ultimately, probably the last-portrait of the river people along the upper Yukon.
About the Author
Dan O'Neill is the author of The Last Giant of Beringia and The Firecracker Boys, for which he was named Alaska Historian of the Year by the Alaska Historical Society. He lives in a log cabin in Fairbanks, Alaska.