Arctic Circle: Birth and Rebirth in the Land of the Caribou - Hardcover

Reid, Robert Leonard

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 156792350X ISBN 13: 9781567923506

Publisher: David R. Godine, Publisher, 2010

Synopsis

Every year without fail in early April, caribou from the Yukon and Alaska make a journey to a small corner of Alaska to give birth to their young. The journey an ordeal of mountains and blizzards, of ravenous wolves, scant forage, and river crossings with ice chunks the size of pickup trucks is the longest migration of any land animal on earth. Despite it all, the females find their way to the calving grounds on the coast of the Beaufort Sea, deliver their calves in June, and then begin their long journey home.

This is their story, told by an author who travels to the Arctic in his seventh decade to witness a few moments of this endless turning circle of birth and rebirth and to answer the question, What is the true nature of the North? Is it the good and generous land of which the Inuit sing, or, in the words of the Arctic explorer, Elisha Kent Kane, Horrible! Horrible! a dwelling place of darkness and death?

Personal and profound, chock-full of adventure, literary references, natural history, and ecological concerns, Mr. Reid has written a memoir that is moving and poignant, evocative
and cautionary. Arctic Circle is a book, in short, that no reader concerned with the fate of the Far North could resist.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Every year without fail, caribou from the Yukon and Alaska set off in early April to a small corner of the Arctic Circle to give birth to their young.The journey of 3000 miles is the longest migration of any land animal on earth. Despite the formidable obstacles, the females find their way to the calving grounds on the coast of the Beaufort Sea, deliver their calves in June, and then begin their long journey home. This is their story, told by an author who travels to the Arctic on his sixtieth birthday, partly to "witness a few moments of this endless turning circle of birth and rebirth," partly to fulfill a promise he made to a visionary ecologist, and partly to answer the question,"What is the true nature of the North?" Personal and profound, chock-full of adventure, literary references, natural history, and ecological concerns, Mr. Reid has written a memoir that is moving and poignant, evocative and cautionary.

About the Author:

Author of Mountains of the Great Blue Dream and America, New Mexico, Robert Leonard Reid has received grants from the Sierra Arts Foundation and the Nevada Arts Council. He has worked as a
songwriter, a cabaret pianist, and a mathematics textbook writer. He lives in Carson City, Nevada, with his wife, Carol, and his son, Jake.

About this edition

• Publisher: David R. Godine, Publisher
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 156792350X
• ISBN 13: 9781567923506
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 200