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Book Jacket IN A FAR COUNTRY
The True Story of a Mission, a Marriage, a Murder, and the Remarkable Reindeer Rescue of 1898
JOHN TALIAFERRO
SUMMARY  |  EXCERPT   |  AUTHOR'S NOTE   |  QUOTES
The awesome, untold adventure of one couple's harrowing, heroic effort to save several hundred ice-bound whalers-- and the future of the Eskimo people

In the fall of 1897, eight whaling ships became trapped in the ice on Alaska's northern coast. Without relief, two hundred whalers would starve to death by winter's end. Mercifully, an extraordinary missionary, Tom Lopp, and seven Eskimo herders embarked on a harrowing journey to save the whalers, driving four hundred reindeer more than seven hundred untracked miles.

At the heart of the rescue expedition lies another, in some ways more compelling, journey. In a Far Country is the personal odyssey of Tom and his wife Ellen Lopp— their commitment to the natives and the rugged but happy life they built for themselves amid a treeless tundra at the top of the world. The Lopps pulled through on grit and wits, on humility and humor, on trust and love, and by the grace of God. Their accomplishment would surely have received broader acclaim had it not been eclipsed by two simultaneous events: the Spanish- American War and the Alaska gold rush. The United States and its territories were transformed abruptly and irrevocably by these fits of expansionist fever, and despite the thoughtful, determined guidance of the Lopps, the natives of the North were soon overwhelmed by a force mightier than the fiercest Arctic winter: the twentieth century.

John Taliaferro is a former senior editor at Newsweek and the author of three acclaimed books, Great White Fathers: The Story of the Obsessive Quest to Create Mount Rushmore, Charles M. Russell: The Life and Legend of America's Cowboy Artist, and Tarzan Forever: The Life of Edgar Rice Burroughs. He lives in Pray, Montana, and Austin, Texas.

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HARDCOVER
ISBN 978-1-58648-221-3
Pub date: 11/20/06
Price: $26.95/32.50 Canada
6 1/8 x 9 1/4
448 pages
8 pp. b/w photos
Carton Quantity: 12
Biography, History
Selling Territory: W
Rights: Public Affairs: First Serial, British Commonwealth, Translation, Audio & Electonic Rights
ICM: Performace rights

PAPERBACK
ISBN 978-1586485085
Pub date: 11/12/07
Price: $15.95/19.50 Canada
5 1/2 x 8 1/4
416 pages
Carton Quantity: 24
Biography, History
Selling Territory: W
Pub history: PublicAffairs hc

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