Wilderness—A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska

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 his 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.

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.