Wildest Alaska: Journeys of Great Peril in Lituya Bay
In southeast Alaska, beneath the stunning and formidable Fairweather range, an inlet shaped like a beached whale opens into water so dangerous that its history is studded with horrific losses. And that is just the history we know. The region is so remote that any number of further tragedies may lie beneath its deceptively placid waves. Born violently of seismic upheaval, Lituya Bay seems to draw more violence to itself. Fradkin winds together searing tales of shipwreck, murder, and enormous waves and some of his own Lituya Bay experiences and observations as an uncomfortable traveler who is haunted by the ghosts of dead Tlingits and Russians and scientists and, perhaps, by a ghost bear, too. The book is best when Fradkin feels most assured of his research. He sometimes seems sheepish in recording his own time in Lituya Bay. But no other book about Alaska so thoroughly documents this strange, powerful corner of the Great Land and the haunted quality permeating many of its most beautiful landscapes.Patricia MonaghanCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.