Klondike: The Last Great Gold Rush, 1896-1899

Front Cover
Doubleday Canada, Oct 9, 2001 - History - 496 pages
With the building of the railroad and the settlement of the plains, the North West was opening up. The Klondike stampede was a wild interlude in the epic story of western development, and here are its dramatic tales of hardship, heroism, and villainy. We meet Soapy Smith, dictator of Skagway; Swiftwater Bill Gates, who bathed in champagne; Silent Sam Bonnifield, who lost and won back a hotel in a poker game; and Roddy Connors, who danced away a fortune at a dollar a dance. We meet dance-hall queens, paupers turned millionaires, missionaries and entrepreneurs, and legendary Mounties such as Sam Steele, the Lion of the Yukon.

Pierre Berton's riveting account reveals to us the spectacle of the Chilkoot Pass, and the terrors of lesser-known trails through the swamps of British Columbia, across the glaciers of souther Alaska, and up the icy streams of the Mackenzie Mountains. It contrasts the lawless frontier life on the American side of the border to the relative safety of Dawson City. Winner of the Governor General's award for non-fiction, Klondike is authentic history and grand entertainment, and a must-read for anyone interested in the Canadian frontier.

About the author (2001)

Born in 1920 and raised in the Yukon, PIERRE BERTON worked in Klondike mining camps during his university years. He spent four years in the army, rising from private to captain/instructor at the Royal Military College in Kingston. He spent his early newspaper career in Vancouver, where at 21 he was the youngest city editor on any Canadian daily. He wrote columns for and was editor of Maclean's magazine, appeared on CBC's public affairs program "Close-Up" and was a permanent fixture on "Front Page Challenge" for 39 years. He was a columnist and editor for the Toronto Star and was a writer and host of a series of CBC programs. For his immense contribution to Canadian literature and history Berton has received a dozen honourary degrees, was a member of the Newsman's Hall of Fame, and was a Companion of the Order of Canada. Pierre Berton passed away in Toronto on November 30, 2004.

Bibliographic information

TitleKlondike: The Last Great Gold Rush, 1896-1899
AuthorPierre Berton
Editionillustrated, revised
PublisherDoubleday Canada, 2001
ISBN0385658443, 9780385658447
Length496 pages
Subjects ›  › 

History / Canada / Post-Confederation (1867-)
History / Modern / 19th Century
History / Social History
  
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