cover image North of the Sun: A Memoir of the Alaskan Wilderness

North of the Sun: A Memoir of the Alaskan Wilderness

Fred Hatfield. Carol Publishing Corporation, $16.95 (184pp) ISBN 978-1-55972-043-4

In 1933, the author left his native Maine for Alaska, where he lived for the next 40 years; this engaging memoir covers the first half of that period. Hatfield spent winters trapping and hunting in the Tikchik Lakes wilderness; in summer he lived in coastal Dillingham, fishing for salmon with the commercial sailboat fleet. Readers will find his wilderness experiences captivating: encountering grizzly bears, moose, wolverines; outwitting and eventually dispatching a murderous trapper; adjusting to the harsh climate and inhospitable terrain; building a remote cabin in which he later lived with his wife and children. The book is a fine piece of nostalgia, a picture of camaraderie and pioneering at a time when Alaska was the frontier. (Nov.)