Cowboys of the Sky: The Story of Alaska's Bush Pilots - Softcover

Levi, Steve

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1594330700 ISBN 13: 9781594330704

Publisher: Publication Consultants, 2012

Synopsis

For more than 80 years, bush pilots have carried supplies, delivered mail, and transported emergency personnel over Alaska's rugged terrain. They've flown with felons handcuffed to the seat, with corpses strapped to the wing, and with drugged polar bears sleeping in the cargo compartment. Ever since aviation came to Alaska planes have been far more important than cars or truck to the residents of the far-flung bush communities. In Cowboys of the Sky: The Story of Alaska's Bush Pilots, humorist and historian Steven C. Levi takes you on a wild ride through the heyday of aviation in Alaska, from the golden years, before federal regulations curbed the more dangerous and outlandish flying practices, all the way to the present. Through photographs and anecdotes, you'll meet brave and colorful pilots, the true cowboys of the sky who carved the face of America's Last Frontier.

About this title

About the Author:

Steven C. Levi is a long-term Alaskan writer and historian. He spent his first year as a teacher in the Bush and has been writing about Alaska's history and its Bush pilot heritage for three decades. He has more than 30 books in print, the most recent being a history of the Alaska Gold Rush, Boom or Bust in the Alaska Gold Fields, an Alaska Gold Rush novel CADZOW, and this book, Cowboys of the Sky, which was a selection of the Alaska Library Association's Battle of the Books. Levi lives in Anchorage with his wife, Susan.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 6 Up?A delightful nonfiction romp. Nowhere else will you find Alaskan aeronautical anecdotes related with such humor for an adolescent audience. From Harold "Thrill 'Em, Chill 'Em, Spill 'Em, But No Kill 'Em" Gillam to Archie Ferguson, "The Craziest Pilot in the World," the author describes in colorful, humorous detail the daredevil lives of the early pilots who braved the elements and distance to service remote villages in the vast Alaskan "bush." Going by decades from the 1920s to the present, the history of the heyday of Alaskan aviation comes alive. The exploits of the daring "Sky Cowboys" glorify a vanishing breed, now considerably tamed by FAA regulations; however, Levi does not glorify the pilots to the point of deification. He notes the old Alaskan adage, "There are old pilots and bold pilots, but there are no old, bold pilots." Numerous historical black-and-white photographs illustrate the text. One discernible error?a photo caption states that Wiley Post and Will Rogers were in Juneau in 1938, when the text states that they died in a crash in 1935.?Mollie Bynum, formerly at Chester Valley Elementary School, Anchorage, AK
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Publication Consultants
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1594330700
• ISBN 13: 9781594330704
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 128