STORIES OF THE FAR NORTH

by Jon--Ed. Tuska ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 15, 1999

Western editor Tuska follows up his Morrow Anthology of Great Western Short Stories (1997) with a volume of nine stories, this time moving the venue somewhat north to bring us to Alaska during the Klondike gold rush of 1898. ""In this collection of stories of the Far North, it is no coincidence that northwest is the direction in which these authors takes us,"" remarks Tuska in his fine introduction. ""It can be a metaphor for an odyssey of the human soul."" Indeed, it is striking just how much fiction was written about this now-obscure period of American history: writers as celebrated as Jack London and Robert Service started their careers writing about the Klondike, and dozens of pulp magazines devoted themselves to stories about the Far North well into the 1930s. London and Service are both represented here, of course, but most of the authors--James Oliver Curwood, Max Brand, Rex Beach, Dan Cushman--are now as obscure as the Klondike itself, and Tuska is to be commended for bringing them (some were bestsellers in their day) back into print. While many of the stories are somewhat two-dimensional and saccharine, readers who like old-fashioned adventure yarns will plenty to sustain them.

Pub Date: Jan. 15, 1999

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: 147

Publisher: Univ. of Nebraska

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 1998

Categories: FICTION