Book 10 of my challenge…. (I’ve attained my goal but I’m not stopping; I’ve finished an 11th that hasn’t been posted yet.)
The Klondike Quest, Pierre Burton
I’ve chosen some great books but this one may be my favourite as I pass the mid-way point in the year. It’s book 10 of my personal quest to read 10 books in 2024.
I’m ashamed as admit that I’d never read Pierre Burton before, but The Klondike Quest was a great one to start with. I have a friend who names Burton as his favourite author and aims to read every one of his over 50 books.
This classic book is a great account of an historic event that made millionaires of a few but crushed thousands more in a hostile climate and unforgiving terrain anticipated by none. It’s more interesting to me as we were recently in the Yukon and Alaska.
The Klondike Gold Rush was 125 years ago and the Yukon-born Pierre Berton tells the story best. Canada's leading historian compiled over 200 rare period images from the more than 10,000 images in public archives and private collections. Depicting every aspect of what Berton called "one of the strangest mass movements in history," many of the compelling images were first published in this book.
The Klondike Quest brings to life the great stampede for gold as seen by the ordinary gold-seeker. The photographs are beautifully reproduced and informatively and colourfully captioned. One million people fortune seekers planned to go to the Klondike. One hundred thousand actually did. Of those, 30,000 made it. The others died or gave up. And so the Klondike saga is a chronicle of humanity in the mass.
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