Description
A Woman Who Went to Alaska by May Kellogg Sullivan is a sensitive and moving account of the author’s travels to Alaska a unique record about two extraordinary twelve-thousand-mile trips undertaken by a brave lady all alone in 1900.The book is so well-written and well-structured that it is more a novel than a travelogue or a personal diary. It is the authors own day-to-day experiences that structure the book and just like in real life, the story is not always eventful, but it is certainly exciting all the way. Not being held back by family or a steady job, Sullivan sets on the long journey to find fortune in Alaska she takes up temporary jobs as she goes to provide for herself and to obtain the money she needs to continue her journey and she endures all sorts of difficulties during the journey without complaining, staying optimistic and positive all the way, through the most terrible hardships.Sullivans book is refreshing and eye-opening at the same time. Alaska became a state of the U.S. only in 1959, the dramatic wilderness we know today being even wilder in Sullivans time. Sullivan travels for weeks on a steamship to get to Alaska, the roads are either non-existent or bumpy and difficult to travel and so are the railroads. The mining camp that is her destination is not more comfortable or safer either and the entire book gives the reader lots of food for thought, especially about the true meaning of strength, courage, independence and resourcefulness.The style of the writing is simple, but very impressive, blending emotional accounts with objective story-telling, but never giving in to self-pity, making the book an extraordinary story about courage and adventure and also about Alaska, with all its savage beauty and richness, all its harsh weather and tough people.