Book description
In August 1918 Rockwell Kent and his 9-year-old son settled into a
primitive cabin on an island near Seward, Alaska. Kent, who during the
next three decades became America's premier graphic artist, printmaker,
and illustrator, was seeking time, peace, and solitude to work on his
art and strengthen ties with his son. This reissue of the journal
chronicling their 7-month odyssey describes what Kent called "an
adventure of the spirit." He soon discovers how deeply he is
"stirred by simple happenings in a quiet world" as man and boy
face both the mundane and the magnificent: satisfaction in simple chores
like woodchopping or baking; the appalling gloom of long and lonely
winter nights; hours of silence while each works at his drawings;
crystalline moonlight glancing off a frozen lake; killer whales
cavorting in their bay. Richly illustrated by Kent's drawings, the
journal vividly re-creates that sense of great height and space -- both
external and internal -- at the same time that it celebrates a
wilderness now nearly lost to us. "Conservationists and
ecologists should rejoice at the reappearance of this splendid diary
telling of the winter of 1918 - 1919, during which the late Rockwell
Kent and his 9-year-old son exulted in the beauties of Alaska's remote
Fox Island. Kent's strong woodcuts and sketches perfectly complement an
unaffected text that tells in an authentic and most effective way of
unspoiled nature in all its glory . . . This book has considerable merit
as an account of rugged life in Alaska, as a paean to the glories of
nature, and as a record of Kent's graphic work." --Library Journal
ROCKWELL KENT (1882 - 1971) was one of America's most celebrated graphic
artists. Although his illustrations for Shakespeare's Complete Works and
Moby Dick may be his most famous achievements, his artwork appeared
everywhere at the height of his career. Wesleyan University Press has
also re-issued N by E, Voyaging, and A Northern Christmas. All of Kent's
travel books have appeared in limited editions since his death -- a
tribute to their perennial appeal.
DOUG CAPRA teaches English in Seward, Alaska. His articles on Kent have
appeared in such publications as Alaska Magazine and The Kent Collector.
