Books about Alaska and the North

Pocket Guide to Alaska. Prepared by the Special Service Division, Army Service Forces, United States Army, in cooperation with the Office of Strategic Services. War and Navy Departments, Washington, D.C. (1943). A brief account of Alaska for the use of servicemen stationed there. (Not for sale.)

Answers to Questions by Servicemen about Land Settlement in Alaska. Prepared by General Land Office, United States Department of the Interior (1944).

General Information, Territory of Alaska. Prepared by Division of Territories and Island Possessions, United States Department of the Interior (1944).

Alaska: Information Relative to the Disposal and Leasing of Public Lands in Alaska. Prepared by General Land Office, United States Department of the Interior (1944).

Agriculture in the Matanuska Valley. By Herbert C. Hanson. Prepared by Division of Territories and Island Possessions. United States Department of the Interior (1943).

The above four folders, free on application to the United States Department of the Interior, Washington 25, D. C., contain much useful and authoritative information.

Alaska Natives. By Hobson D. Anderson and Walter C. Eells. Published by Stanford University Press, Stanford University, California (1.935). A sound and detailed discussion.

Lord of Alaska. By Hector Chevigny. Published by Viking Press, 18 East 48th Street. New York 17, N. Y. (1942). Biography of Baranov, governor of Russian Alaska.

Alaska: The Last Frontier. By Henry W. Clark. Published by Grosset and Dunlap, 1107 Broadway, New York 10, N. Y. (1939). A good brief popular history.

Road to Alaska. By Douglas Coe. Published by Julian Messner, 8 West 40th Street, New York 18, N. Y. (1944). A well-illustrated narrative of the construction of the Alaska Highway, written for children, but of interest to adults.

Guide to Alaska. Last American Frontier. By Merle Colby. Published by Macmillan Company, 60 Fifth Avenue, New York 11, N. Y. (1939). A Federal Writers’ Project. The standard guide to Alaska.

War Discovers Alaska. By Joseph Driscoll. Published by J. B. Lippincott Company, 227 South 6th Street, Philadelphia 5, Pa. (1944).

Our Hidden Front. By William Gilman. Published by Reynal and Hitchcock, 386 Fourth Avenue, New York 16, N. Y. (1944).

Bridge to Victory. By Howard Handleman. Published by Random House, 20 East 57th Street. New York 22. N. Y. (1943). These three volumes are accounts of the present war in Alaska. The last two are mainly concerned with the Aleutian campaign.

Alaska Comes of Age. By Julius C. Edelstein. No. 8 of Far Eastern Pamphlets, published by Institute of Pacific Relations. 1 East 54th Street, New York 22, N. Y. (1942).

Canada Moves North. By Richard Finnie. Published by Macmillan Company, 60 Fifth Avenue, New York 11, N. Y. (1942). An excellent discussion of the Canadian Northwest.

Journey through the Fog. By Cornelia Goodhue. Published by Doubleday, Doran and Company, Garden City, N. Y. (1944). A narrative of Bering’s explorations.

Alaska and the Canadian Northwest: Our New Frontier. By Harold Griffin. Published by W. W. Norton and Company, 70 Fifth Avenue, New York, N. Y. (1944).

I Went to the Soviet Arctic. By Ruth Gruber. Published by Viking Press, 18 East 48th Street. New York 17, N. Y. (1944). Interesting account of Russian advances in the Soviet Arctic regions. New edition with new material.

Alaska Diary, 1926–1931. By Ales Hrdlicka. Published with the permission of the Smithsonian Institution by Jaques Cattell Press. Lancaster, Pa. (1943). The travel diary of a noted scholar and anthropologist.

U. S.-Canadian Northwest: A Demonstration Area for International Postwar Planning and Development. By Benjamin H. Kizer. Published in cooperation with the American Council, Institute of Pacific Relations, by the Princeton University Press. Princeton, N. J. (1943). Contains much valuable material on the postwar development of Alaska and the Canadian Northwest.

Alaska: Its Resources and Development. Prepared by the National Resources Committee. Printed at the Government Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C. (1938). A rather full discussion, by specialists, of the resources of Alaska.

Here Is Alaska. By Evelyn Stefansson. Published by Charles Scribner’s Sons, 597 Fifth Avenue, New York 23, N. Y. (1943). A lively entertaining popular account, well illustrated.

Arctic Manual. By Vilhjalmur Stefansson. Published by Macmillan Company, 60 Fifth Avenue, New York 11, N. Y. (1944). A handbook to the Arctic regions.

The Northward Course of Empire. By Vilhjalmur Stefansson. Published by Harcourt, Brace and Company, 383 Madison Avenue, New York 17, N. Y. (1922). A discussion of the role of the North in modern civilization.

Alaska, America’s Continental Frontier Outpost. By Ernest P. Walker. No. 13 of War Background Studies published by Smithsonian Institution, Washington 25, D. C. (1943). An authoritative account of Alaska’s geography, resources, and people, with an excellent discussion of the strategic importance of the Territory.

Various Alaska Chambers of Commerce, the Alaska Game Commission, the Alaska Road Commission, and other Alaskan agencies frequently publish material of interest to visitors or prospective settlers, available on request.

Most federal departments which are concerned with Alaska have published important material concerning Alaskan resources and development. These include the Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, the Geological Survey, the Office of Education, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Alaska Railroad—all in the United States Department of the Interior; the Office of Experiment Stations and the Forest Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, and others. A list of government publications relating to Alaska is available from the Superintendent of Documents, Washington, D. C. The Annual Report of the Governor of Alaska, obtainable from the Division of Territories and Island Possessions, United States Department of the Interior, contains valuable material. Useful to those interested in Alaska’s future is the Alaska Development Plan, issued by the Alaska Planning Council, Juneau. Alaska (1941).

From EM 20: What Has Alaska to Offer Postwar Pioneers? (1944)