Robert Marshall. 
 
University of California: 1956. Second printing. Hardcover in a jacket. Large octavo. Tears and scuffing along the edges of the jackets, especially on the folds by the spine and the corners. Smudges on the inside of the jacket. Jacket is pice-clipped. Edges of the boards are a little tanned, and there are a couple of stains on the boards as well. A fold on the top of the crown. Former owner's ex libris stamp on the endpaper. 171 pages. Book is very good, jacket is good. 
 
A collection of Robert Marshall's explorations into an arctic previously untouched by people. The excitement of solitary and knowledge-gathering adventure is multiplied by the fact that Marshall was no misanthrope. He was a Director of Forestry in the U.S. Forestry Service, committed to the use of public lands that would actually benefit the public. To own this book is to hold close the two sides of our relationship to wilderness: we are caretakers of an inheritance, and we are insatiably curious explorerers. 
 
"First, my introduction to the wild and beautiful country of the North Fork and the Arctic Divide made me restless to see more of it, especially since there were large parts of it left which had seldom if ever been seen before by man. Second, my meeting a number of the white and Eskimo people who lived on the borders of this remote region left me with a sense of their vivid character and with the impression that they were the happiest folk under the sun. I wished to know them better."