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The Final Frontiersman

Heimo Korth and His Family, Alone in Alaska's Arctic Wilderness

About The Book

Hundreds of hardy people have tried to carve out a living in the Alaskan bush, but few have succeeded as consistently as Heimo Korth. In The Final Frontiersman, Heimo's cousin James Campbell chronicles Korth's amazing life and adventures, creating a powerful, real-life epic of triumph and tragedy. Campbell spent two years witnessing firsthand the Korth family: Heimo, his wife Edna and their teenage daughters Rhonda and Krin. With impressive detail, the author recounts an everyday existence shaped by a harsh and unforgiving country. In their efforts to preserve the ecology of the land, the Korths lead a nomadic life, waiting patiently for the odd small plane to bring supplies and cultivating hard-earned hunting skills that are all that stand between them and lingering death. By turns inspiring and downright jolting, THE FINAL FRONTIERSMAN reads like a rustic version of the American Dream, in which the physical barriers of a stunning wilderness are no obstacle to forging a life outside of the mainstream.

About The Author

James Campbell has written for National Geographic Adventure, Outside, and Men’s Journal, among other publications. His book The Final Frontiersman is the inspiration for the documentary series, The Last Alaskans. He lives in Wisconsin with his wife and two daughters.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Atria Books (September 19, 2005)
  • Length: 320 pages
  • ISBN13: 9780743453141

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Raves and Reviews

"What makes this more than just a profile of a fascinating personality is Campbell's deft weaving of Alaskan history into Korth's tale."
-- Publishers Weekly

"[One of] the greatest life-or-death tales ever told."
-- Esquire

"Campbell makes the case that an increasingly urban America -- and its desires for oil, for timber, for neat and packaged wilderness -- is killing and, worse, forgetting the frontier we once worshiped."
-- The New York Times

"The Final Frontiersman is an icily gripping, intimate profile that stands up well beside Krakauer's classic, and it stands too, as a kind of testament to the rough beauty of improbably wild dreams."
-- Men's Journal

"Heimo Korth and his family face down more adventures in a typical week than most of us experience in a lifetime. A terrific first book -- by turns inspiring and unnerving and never less than wholly absorbing."
-- Bill Bryson, BOMC judge, writing in the Book-of-the-Month Club News

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