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Outdoor writing occasionally
produces writers who step beyond the
normal confines of the genre to produce classic books of enduring
value, books
that speak to everyone, outdoorsman or not. Usually
these are first person accounts of discovery,
accomplishment
against overwhelming odds, or deeply personal ‘life changing’ moments. Winterdance, by Gary Paulsen, does
all three.
I first encountered the book about 6
years ago and have re-read it several times. Published
in 1994, it is still one of best books about the
Iditarod,
probably the most competitive event devised by man.
The 1,180 mile race has been called “The Last Great Race
on
Earth.” From Anchorage to Nome,
essentially the breadth of Alaska, each team of 12 to 16 dogs and their
musher
race across jagged mountain ranges, frozen rivers, dense forests,
desolate
tundra and frozen sea ice in temperatures far, far below zero, against
hurricane
force winds, while enduring hunger, frostbite, moose attacks, and
countless
other hazards. Winterdance is an
inspiring story that has been cited by many of today’s mushers as their
introduction to the race. Paulsen’s sub
title for the book says it all: “The Fine Madness of Running the
Iditarod.”
And it’s
the ‘madness’ that sets it apart: the
madness of a 44-year old northern Minnesota part time trapper turned
struggling
writer who falls in love with running dogs and who admits that “Right
then I was
probably one of the least qualified dog drivers on the entire planet to
go up
and run the Iditarod.” It happened as
he was returning home from a trapping run on a winter’s night under a
full moon
above the silently running dogs: “It was the most beautiful thing I’d
ever
seen. It was like a dance,” and he simply turned the team and
disappeared into
the wilderness with them for a week. The
madness – the dogs.
Dog books abound; there are hundreds
of titles to choose from. Most talk
about the bond that develops between dog and master. None that I’ve
ever read
come close to portraying the intensity this bond takes as it does with
sled
dogs. After months of searching for, and acquiring a team of sled dogs
–
pulling dogs with a dollop of wolf thrown in – Paulsen comes to the
realization
that in order to fully become their leader he “had to in some way
become a
dog.” And so he “read in the kennel,
sewed in the kennel, slept, and even set up a bathroom and did that in
the
kennel.” From that point on, nothing
stopped
them. Madness turned into routine. Paulsen’s profound relationship with his
dogs has never stopped. Today he still
carries a snapshot of Cookie, his first leader and the dog who saved
his life
in the ‘83 race, in his wallet.
With no money, no proper equipment,
no truck, no idea of how to train, without ever having run a sled dog
race in
his life, Paulsen manages to find someone who will vouch for him (today
you
must run qualifying races) and enters the 1983 Iditarod.
The chapters detailing the preparations
leading up to the race are replete with hilarious anecdotes that do
nothing to
dispel the underlying race madness that has taken over.
Paulsen’s keen eye for detail and apt
description, show in this comment to his wife at the end of an
exhausting day’s
training run: “They never get tired,” I said. “Never, they
just don’t wear down. Seventy miles at a
dead run. I think I could have turned them
around and
run it backwards…I don’t know them any longer…they’ve become
something
wild…even Cookie – she’s changed, altered, entered some kind of second
state or
something.” By
now we know that the madness is severe, almost surreal. The pre-race activities are
hell. Getting out of Anchorage is hell. The race is hell.
Paulsen is alone, with his dogs, setting out
to cross an area of wilderness as large as the entire eastern seaboard
from
Maine to Florida. No cell phones or GPS
devices are allowed. The rules are strict
(13 pages, single spaced). It all comes
down to one thing – the musher and his team are to survive on their own. Some have died in the attempt. Paulsen and his team of
fifteen dogs run through the breathtaking and dangerous Arctic land;
they
endure hardships unimaginable to those of us in the lower 48. Paulsen has placed his life in the hands of
his dogs, and day after day, they deliver. He
says, “I literally stopped thinking in human terms…I
had actually
started to ‘think dog’.” And then,
after a cordial rest stop with another musher he comments:
“I would never have guessed that I would
see him commit murder not ten hours later.” The other musher couldn’t
get his team to rise. With Paulsen as
witness, he loses it: “He
kicked the dog in the head and it screamed in pain and again
in the head and then carefully, aimed carefully and with great force,
in the
side just to the rear of the rib cage. The
dog’s screams had gone on all this time but with the
last kick – the
blow must have almost literally exploded the dog’s liver – the dog fell
back
and grew still and it was over, in seconds it was over and he looked up
at me,
directly at me, and I saw things I had never seen, never want to see
again. I saw hate, self-hate, hate and
rage and such savagery that I drew back and suddenly understood Nazis
and
rabies and rape and pillage and My Lai and the death camps and all the
horrors
that men have done to other men and to themselves in hate, and I
thought I
should kill him.”
A musher who kills a dog for any
reason is instantly disqualified and barred for life from racing. Paulsen and another musher who witnessed the
incident reported him and the killer musher was banned.
Such behavior is so rare in the Iditarod
that it stands out as the raw, ultimate demarcation of man’s inhumanity.
Towards the end of the race, Norton
Sound, “seventy-five miles of open, often moving, splitting, heaving
sea
ice…with no cover of any kind if the wind comes for you,” must be
crossed. And then, while running and day
dreaming
about all the explorers who had run ice, it happened in seconds –
Cookie’s tail
shot up and at the same time she “got light,” going up on her tiptoes,
trying
to be lighter – meaning only one thing: bad ice. Instantly
the ice moved, new ice, very new, only a few inches
thick, heaving and bending.
Paulsen yells “Gee around,” an old
trapline command and Cookie, only Cookie knew it (the new race dogs
hadn’t run
traps) and Cookie gets her nails in a crack and drags the team around
to safe
ice. Close. An hour earlier he would
have gone through. It has happened to
other teams – musher, dogs, tangled harness, sled – dragged down into
the Sound.
And on to Nome. The
race is relentless. He’s within sight of
Nome and he doesn’t
want to go in, but Cookie picks it up and they go in, in to the lights
and
cameras and reporters and family and the Mayor of Nome. “And I stood
in my torn clothing, everything ripped
and resewn, a sanitary napkin packed into my bleeding ass, my ability
to think
gone, my hips and back wrecked from the jolting of the runners; stood
in the
wreckage of seventeen days, fourteen hours on the trail; stood with
spit frozen
in my beard and frostbitten cheekbones, two of my toes black; stood in
memories
of attacking moose and carnivorous wind, the sweeps of the interior out
ahead
of me; stood in all of that and said with complete belief: ‘I’m going
to come
back and win this son of a bitch’…”
Truly mad.
Paulsen, a rookie, finished a
respectable 42nd out of 73 teams. He
entered in 1985, but scratched. Forced to
withdraw from sled dog racing by a heart
condition after the
’85 race, he is back (with stints), having moved to Alaska in 2005 to
train for
the 2006 Iditarod, in which he scratched. At 67, he is currently listed
as a starter for the
2007 race. Still mad.
Lest one think that Paulsen is the lucky author of a
one-time outdoors blockbuster, a few facts quickly dispel the notion. In a writing career that spans about forty
years he has written no less than 175 books, mostly for juveniles and
young
adults. Eighteen of these books have
garnered 52 awards, including three Newbery Honor Book citations. The Newbery, established in 1922, is an award
presented annually to the author of the most distinguished contribution
to
American literature for children published in the United States in the
preceding year. The years immediately
following his involuntary withdrawal from racing dogs resulted in a
prodigious
output of these books. I have been able
to chase down over ninety titles in the juvenile and young adult
fiction category
written by Paulsen. His non-fiction books for this group now numbers
about twenty-five. Many are still in print
and all available through online used booksellers.
Impressed with Winterdance, I decided
to check out
some of these young adult novels. Hatchet (1987) turned out to
be as
readable and absorbing as much of the current adult stuff we see on
stands
everywhere. In it Brian, a 13-year-old,
survives a plane crash and spends 45 days in the Canadian wilderness, a
hatchet
given to him by his mother just before take off, his only survival tool. The
book was so popular that Paulsen was enjoined to write sequels: The
River (1991),
Brian’s Winter (1996) and Brian’s Hunt (2003). In Brian’s
Hunt, the climax comes with the
discovery that a rogue bear has killed and partially eaten his friend’s
mother
and father at their camp on an isolated island. Paulsen
includes an afterword pointing out that the horrific
attack portrayed is based on an actual documented event and that “in
our
arrogance and so-called knowledge we forget that we are not unique…we
are part
of nature as much as other animals…” This is writing far removed from
that
available to me as a youngster. No Judy
Bolton here, no Tom Swift, no Nancy Drew, no sugar-coated romantic
purple prose, no
limpid
pools, no lush camouflage of reality.
In Guts
(2001), Paulsen takes the young
reader behind the scenes of Hatchet as he lived them when he
was passionately
in love with hunting in the north woods of Minnesota as a teenager. Told with frankness and candor, Paulsen
doesn’t flinch from telling young people the way it is. Father
Water, Mother Woods
(1994) is a
collection of essays about hunting and fishing taken from his childhood
in
Minnesota, sometimes alone, usually with his friends.
In it every expedition is a major one, and often
hilarious. While
written primarily for the teenage reader, it has almost universal
appeal and
can be found in the adult section at the Coudersport Library. In it he touches on his tormented childhood
with two abusive parents, fully dealt with in a strictly adult book, Eastern
Sun, Winter Moon (1993). The
latter, a painfully honest account of his earliest childhood years as
an
unwilling witness to deviant sex, alcoholism, abandonment, the
brutality of war
and poverty, leads one to wonder how he managed to escape to write at
all. According
to Paulsen, it started one bitter cold day in his early teens when he
was
walking by the local library. He ducked
in to get warm for a little while and the librarian offered him a
library card
so that he could check out a book to help him pass the time. “When she handed me the card, she handed me
the world,” he remembers. He became a
reader. It may have been the only sane thing in a world of parental
alcoholism,
a world deteriorating into chaos. He
missed so much school, he was just barely able to graduate. At 19 he joined the Army and was assigned to
missile duty, after which he was certified in electronics engineering,
working
for both Bendix and Lockheed. By
1966 Paulsen was in Hollywood, under the flimsiest of covers (he
fabricated a
resume) – as a writer! Days he wrote
copy, proofread, designed photo spreads, worked as a film extra. Evenings he drank. And
the drinking almost did him in, so by the early 1970’s
he found
himself back in Minnesota where he settled into writing almost full
time. Sued (unsuccessfully) for libel over
the
source for Winterkill (1977) almost ruined him financially, as
the case
went all the way to the Minnesota Supreme Court and he moved again to a
remote
cabin and found work setting traps with a team of huskies and an old
work sled. In
1983 he was given his first advance for a book by a publisher. It was the year he decided to enter the
Iditarod. The year of madness. Sources:
http://www.iditarod.com/ (The official Iditarod web site) http://www.yourlibrary.ws/childrens_webpage/j-author52000.htm (Greenville Public Library, Juvenile Author of the Month) http://www.randomhouse.com/features/garypaulsen/ (Random House, one of Paulsen’s publishers) http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~kvander/paulsen.html
(Rutgers Univ., Vandergrift Lib., “Learning About Gary Paulsen.”
BOOKS BY GARY PAULSEN Juvenile and Young Adult FictionThe Island,
Scholastic Inc.,
2006 The Legend of
Bass Reeves, 2006 The Quilt, Yearling, 2005 How Angel Peterson got His Name, Random House Children’s Books, 2004 Brian’s Hunt, Random House Children’s Books, 2003 The Glass Cafe, Wendy Lamb Books, 2003 Tucket's Travels, Yearling, 2003 Tucket's Home, Random House Children’s
Books, 2002 The White Fox Chronicles, 2002 Alida's Song, Random House Children’s Books, 2001 Guts, Scholastic Inc., 2001 Tucket's Gold, Yearling Books, 2001 The Beet Fields: Memories of a Sixteenth Summer, Delacorte Press, 2000 Soldier's Heart, Laurel Leaf, 2000 The White Fox Chronicles, Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2000 My Life in Dog Years, Yearling, 1999 Sarny: A Life Remembered, Laurel Leaf, New York, New York, U.S.A., 1999 The Transall Saga, Laurel Leaf, 1999 Canoe Days, Doubleday Books for Young Readers, 1999 Puppies, Dogs, and Blue Northers: Reflections on Being Raised By A Pack Of Sled Dogs, Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 1998 Curse of the Ruins, Laurel Leaf, New York, New York, U.S.A., 1998 The Schernoff Discoveries, Macmillan Children's Books, 1997 Tucket's Ride, NY Delacorte Press, 1997 Grizzly (Gary
Paulsen World of Adventure), 1997 Brian’s Winter, New York, Delacorte, 1996 Call Me Francis Tucket, Yearling, 1996 The Seventh
Crystal, (Gary Paulsen World of Adventure), 1996 Murphy's Trail, Gary Paulsen and Brian Burks, 1996 The Treasure of
El Patron, 1996 The Gorgon
Slayer (Gary Paulsen World of Adventure), 1995 Captive!, Yearling, 1995 Escape From Fire Mountain, Random House Children’s Books, 1995 Danger on Midnight River, Random House Children’s Pub, 1995 Captive, Yearling, 1995 Mr. Tucket, Yearling, 1995 Call Me Frances Tucket, New York, Delacorte, 1995 Danger On Midnight River, New York, Doubleday, 1995 Escape From Fire Mountain, New York, Bantam Books, 1995 Hook ‘em Snotty, New York, Doubleday, 1995 The Rifle, San Diego, CA, Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1995 Rock Jockeys, New York, Bantam, 1995 The Tent, San Diego, CA, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1995 The Tortilla Factory, San Diego, CA, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1995 The Car, San Diego, CA, Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1994 The Legend of Red Horse Cavern, New York, Bantam, 1994 Dogteam, New York, Delacorte, 1993 Harris and Me, A Summer Remembered, San Diego, CA, Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich, 1993 Nightjohn, New York, Delacorte, 1993 Sisters/Hermanas, San Diego, CA, Harcourt,
Brace Jovanovich,
1993 Tiltawhirl John, 1992 A Christmas Sonata, New York, Delacorte, 1992 The Haymeadow, New York, Delacorte, 1992 Culpepper Adventures Series, New York, Dell, from 1992 to 1996 (11 novels) The Cookcamp, New York, Orchard, 1991 The Monument, New York, Delacorte, 1991 The River, New York, Delacorte, 1991 The Voyage of the Frog, Yearling Books, 1990 The Boy Who Owned the School, New York, Orchard, 1990 Canyons, New York, Delacorte, 1990 The Night the White Deer Died, New York, Delacorte, 1990 Woodsong, New York, Bradbury Press, 1990 Murphy's War (Board book), 1990 The Voyage of the Frog, New York, Orchard, 1989 The Winter Room, New York, Orchard, 1989 The Island, New York, Orchard, 1988 Murphy, 1988 The Crossing, New York, Orchard, 1987 Hatchet, New York, Bradury Press, 1987 Sentries, New York, Bradbury Press, 1986 Dogsong, New York, Bradbury Press, 1985 Tracker, New York, Bradbury Press, 1984 Dancing Carl, New York, Bradbury Press, 1983 Popcorn Days and Buttermilk Nights, Lodestar Books, 1983 The Spitball Gang, Elsevier, 1980 The Green Recruit, Independence Press, 1978 The C. B. Radio Caper, Raintree, 1977 The Curse of the Cobra, Raintree, 1977 The Foxman, T. Nelson, 1977 The Golden Stick, Raintree, 1977 Tiltawhirl, John T. Nelson, 1977 Winterkill, T. Nelson, 1977 (95) Juvenile and Young Adult Non-FictionZero to Sixty: The Motorcycle Journey of a Lifetime, 1999My Life in Dog Years, Yearling, 1998 Father Water, Mother Woods: Essays on Fishing and Hunting in the North Woods, illustrated by R. W. Paulsen, New York: Delacorte, 1994 Sailing: From Jibs to Jibing, illustrated by R. W. Paulsen, Messner, 1981 TV and Movie Animals (with Art Browne, Jr.), Messner, 1980 Canoeing, Kayacking, and Rafting, illustrated by John Peterson and Jack Storholm, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979 Downhill, Hotdogging and Cross-Country—If the Snow Isn’t Sticky, photographs by Kluetmeier and Willis Wood, Raintree, 1979 Facing Off, Checking and Goaltending—Perhaps, photographs by Kluetmeier and Melchior DiGiacomo, Raintree, 1979 Going Very Fast in a Circle—If You Don’t Run Out of Gas, photographs by Kluetmeier and Bob D’Olivo, Raintree, 1979 Launching, Floating High and Landing—If Your Pilot Light Doesn’t Go Out, photographs by Kluetmeier, New York: Delacorte, 1979 Pummeling, Falling and Getting Up—Sometimes, photographs by Kluetmeier and Joe DiMaggio, Raintree, 1979
Track, Enduro and
Motocross—Unless You Fall Over, photographs by Kluetmeier, Forehanding and Backhanding—If You’re Lucky, photographs by Kluetmeier, Raintree, 1978 Hiking and Backpacking (with John Morris), illustrated by R. W. Paulsen, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1978 Running, Jumping, and Throwing—If You Can, photographs by Kluetmeier, Raintree, 1978 Careers in an Airport, photographs by R. Nye, Raintree, 1977 Riding, Roping, and Bulldogging—Almost, photographs by Kluetmeier, Raintree, 1977 Tackling, Running, and Kicking—Now and Again, photographs by Kluetmeier, Raintree, 1977 Dribbling, Shooting, and Scoring—Sometimes, photographs by Kluetmeier, Raintree, 1976 The Grass-Eaters: Real Animals, illustrated by Goff, photographs by Miller, Raintree, 1976 Hitting, Pitching, and Running—Maybe, photographs by Kluetmeier, Raintree, 1976 Martin Luther King: The Man Who Climbed the Mountain (with Dan Theis), Raintree, 1976 The Small Ones, illustrated by K. Goff, photographs by Wilford Miller, Raintree, 1976 (24) Adult FictionMurphy’s Ambush, Walker, 1995 Murphy’s Stand, Walker, 1993 Murphy’s Herd, Walker, 1989 The Madonna Stories, Van Vliet, 1988 Murphy’s Gold, Walker, 1988. Murphy, Walker, 1987 Clutterkill, New York: Harlequin, 1982 Campkill, Pinnacle Books, 1981 The Sweeper, New York: Harlequin, 1981 C. B. Jockey, Major Books, 1977 The Death Specialists, Major Books, 1976 The Implosion Effect, Major Books, 1976 (12) Adult Non-FictionCaught by the Sea, New York: Delacorte, 2001 Winterdance, San Diego, CA: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1994 Eastern Sun, Winter Moon, San Diego, CA: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1993 Clabbered Dirt, Sweet Grass, San Diego, CA: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1992 (4) OtherNight Rituals, New York: Bantam, 1991 Kill Fee, Donald I. Fine, Inc., 1990 Beat the System: A Survival Guide, Pinnacle Books, 1983 Money-Saving Home Repair Guide, Ideals, 1981 Successful Home Repair, Structures, 1978 Farm: A History and Celebration of the American Farmer, Prentice-Hall, 1977 The Building a New, Buying an Old, Remodeling a Used, Comprehensive Home and Shelter Book, Prentice-Hall, 1976 Some Birds Don’t Fly, Rand McNally, 1969 The Special War, (with Raymond Friday Locke), Sirkay, 1966 (10) PlaysTogether-Apart (one-act), produced in Denver, CO, at Changing Scene Theater, 1976 Communications (one act), produced in New Mexico, 1974 (2) 147 Total
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