Travels in Alaska

This classic account of John Muir’s three visits to Alaska—in 1879, 1880, and 1890—vividly recalls his adventures and discoveries, his sojourns among the native tribes, and his unbounded delight in the untamed Alaskan wilderness. Here also are his harrowing accounts of near death between grinding walls of glacial ice and of rescuing a companion from a thousand-foot precipice.

David Rains Wallace is the author of fifteen books, including The Turquoise Dragon, The Quetzal and the Macaw, The Monkey's Bridge (a 1997 New York Times Notable Book), and The Klamath Knot,which won the Burroughs Medal in 1984. He was raised in Connecticut and graduated from Wesleyan College. He now lives in Berkeley, California.

John Muir (1838-1914) was one of the most influential conservationists and nature writers in American history. Founder of the Sierra Club, and its president until his death, Muir was a spirit so free that all he did to prepare for an expedition was to "throw some tea and bread into an old sack and jump the back fence."