Ethics of Alaska Travel Writing since 1959

Benjamin Ferguson is Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He is also a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Malaurie Institute of Arctic Research (MIARC) and has published several articles on themes of Travel Writing and Ecocriticism about Alaska.

• AcknowledgementsList of IllustrationsIntroduction1 Peter Matthiessen’s Oomingmak2 John McPhee’s Coming into the Country3 Barry Lopez’ Arctic Dreams4 Tom Lowenstein’s Ancient Land, Sacred Whale5 Jonathan Raban’s Passage to Juneau6 Nancy Lord’s Beluga Days7 Anglophone Travel Writing: From Mercantilism to the Enlightenment8 Anglo-Colonization, the Protestant Work Ethic, and the Last Frontier9 Jefferson versus Hamilton10 The Rise of Environmental Awareness11 Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, and John Muir12 Environmental Justice in AlaskaPART 1: Mapping the Ethical Fault Lines1 The McPhee Conundrum1 The Question of Manichaeism in Environmental Writing1.1 Encounters with the Archdruid1.2 Annals of the Former World1.3 Coming into the Country2 What Does John McPhee’s Work Mean for Alaska?2 Masculinity v. Femininity1 Libby Beaman2 Margaret Murie3 Lois Crisler4 Ecofeminism in Alaskan Literature5 Nancy Lord3 Native Oral Tradition, Lack of Written Record, and Lack of Respect1 Attention to Language in Arctic Dreams2 Raban Evokes Wittgenstein, Importance of Names3 Tom Lowenstein and the Experiment of Translation4 Depictions of Alaskan Natives1 Raban’s Conflicted Contribution to Native Peoples2 Nancy Lord’s Sensible Objectivity with Regard to Natives3 Matthiessen’s Sharp, Concise Reflections on Alaska Natives of Nunivak in Oomingmak4 Conclusion5 Religion and Spirituality1 Lord’s Aesthetic Atheism2 Peter Matthiessen, the Missing Zen Master3 Tom Lowenstein, or, How Does Buddhism Relate to the Inuit?4 Wordsworth and Emerson, and their Descendants5 “The Native Eye” in Lopez and Lowenstein6 Conclusion6 Animals1 Animals Speak in the Work of Barry Lopez2 Nancy Lord is Made of Salmon3 Tom Lowenstein’s Whales4 Matthiessen’s Means of Animal Communication5 Do Animals Actually Speak in These Works?7 Liberty1 Raban’s Fishermen2 McPhee’s River People3 Lord’s “Take One” Alaska Native Distrust of the White ManPART 2: Writing beyond the Last FrontierIntroduction8 Perspective on Myopic Writing9 Psychological Issues and the Middle Way1 Introduction to Rationalization as a Social Construct, Linked with Political Journalism and Contemporary Academic History2 What in the World Can We Learn about the American Political Dichotomy from an Englishman?3 Attention to Language and Tone4 The Bloom and Lilla Controversies5 Community and (Toxic?) Masculinity: What Could John McPhee Do Better?6 Conundrum Conclusion, and a Pre-emptive Defense of the Middle Way10 Jon Krakauer, John Vaillant, and Dave Eggers: Different Approaches to Sensational Writing1 Sensational Non-Fiction11 “Local Travel Writing” in the Country, or Broadly Outside?1 What the Walt?