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Manuscripts

Notebook kept by a miner at Sunrise, Alaska

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Description
Notebook including diary pages, local history, short stories, and other notes kept by an unknown miner in Sunrise, Alaska, from 1897-1899. The diary pages open in early November 1897, when the author was living in a cabin in the south of Sunrise, near Cook's Inlet. He notes that the last day of sunshine had passed and that he would be living in near total darkness and isolation for the next several months, with little to read except "Shakespeare and the Bible." He writes often rambling philosophical thoughts centered around what he later describes as "the central theme of longing for 'something higher and better.'" He also writes of his unrequited love for a woman named Gertie in "remembrance of my old ravings." He makes occasional references to local culture, noting that "the miners all through Alaska speak in anything but nice terms of the priests of the Greek Church...some shocking stories are told about the depravity of some of these priests." He writes specifically of a Father Nicolai [sic], who he calls a notorious gambler. In early December he hiked up to where Canyon Creek and East Fork met to form Six Mile River, and noted that in addition to breaking the monotony by seeing the scenery "another cause of gratulation [sic] is the frequency of earthquakes." The next entry is from November 1898, when he was apparently living in a different cabin in the Turnagain Arm district. He writes briefly of the scenery and local people, noting that "several Indians make Sunrise one of their living places, and a few squaws, the consorts of white men, lend an ugly picturesqueness to a town's gathering." He also observes that "there are many queer characters in this place and this is to me a new phase of existence," and that he was inspired to begin writing short stories, which comprise much of the rest of the volume through 1899. Noting that he intends to eventually improve and publish them, he includes drafts of stories about local people entitled "Shorty," "The Immanence of God," and "At River's," in addition to many other story notes and fragments, as well as a few poems. An entry from July 1899 recounts the history of the Baranof Castle in Sitka (which had burned down in 1894). In his final entry he records a dream he had about "a woman whom I loved." Included at the back of the notebook are lists of local plants and animals.
Type
Manuscripts(Opens in new tab)
Production date
1897-1899.
Call number
mssHM 80136
Provenance
Purchased from M&S Rare Books, May 20, 2013.
Find out more
View in the Library catalog(Opens in new tab)

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