Gold Rush in the Klondike: A Woman’s Journey in 1898–1899

Gold Rush in the Klondike: A Woman’s Journey in 1898–1899

When Josephine Knowles left for the Klondike gold fields with her husband in 1898, she didnâ€™t know she would be facing a constant battle with cold, disease, malnutrition, and the ever-present possibility of death. With quiet determination, she resolved to survive, to endure each fresh hardship without complaint, and to be of service to the community around her.

â€œGold Rush in the Klondikeâ€ is Knowlesâ€™s true story of her year in the Yukon territory, a revealing, never-before-published personal memoir of day-to-day life at the height of the Klondike Gold Rush. Written in a clear, forthright, nineteenth-century style, â€œGold Rush in the Klondikeâ€ presents terrifying struggles against a hostile environment, picturesque descriptions of an untouched Arctic wilderness, and Knowlesâ€™s keen observations of men and women on the frontier.

A Victorian gentlewoman of refinement, Knowles found herself among swearing, whoring, sometimes violent miners, whom she won over with her grit and compassion. Deciding to never moralize or condemn, Knowles writes frankly of the intense hardships that drove miners into lives of drink and dissipation and the frontier women who were forced to make stark choices between prostitution and starvation.

Knowlesâ€™s adventures include encounters with author Jack London (Knowles firmly disapproved of Londonâ€™s cruel mistreatment of his sled dogs), nursing miners during a typhoid outbreak until she fell ill herself, witnessing savage fights among the miners, dangerous travel through the mountain passes and river rapids of the Yukon, and a daring surreptitious visit to a gambling saloon. Amid all hardships, Knowles formed warm relationships with the mining community, for, as she put it, â€œAll the diseases and other troubles had knitted us into one large family.â€

Illustrated with period photographs, â€œGold Rush in the Klondikeâ€ is an invaluable historical document of a lost time and place and an admirable portrait of one womanâ€™s determination in the face of danger.
Country USA
Brand Quill Driver Books
Manufacturer Quill Driver Books
Binding Hardcover
UnitCount 1
Format Illustrated
EANs 9781610352703
ReleaseDate 0000-00-00

Country	USA
Brand	Quill Driver Books
Manufacturer	Quill Driver Books
Binding	Hardcover
UnitCount	1
Format	Illustrated
EANs	9781610352703
ReleaseDate	0000-00-00

Gold Rush in the Klondike: A Woman’s Journey in 1898–1899

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