Jean Potter

In 1924, the first mail plane was flown in Alaska and the era of the bush pilot began. Ben Eielson, Noel Wien, Bob Reeve, Harold Gillam and Joe Crosson are not well known today but they along with many others successfully challenged the wilderness and created a legend that endures even in the twenty-first century. The bush pilot is as much a part of Alaskan lore as the northern lights, and shows no sign of fading away. Originally published in 1945, The Flying North returns in this stunning reissue which includes previously unpublished material from author Jean Potter. It is the only book written on Alaska's early days in the air that draws on personal interviews with the men who were there. The Flying North presents Alaska as it was during the dawn of aviation, and how a group of dedicated pilots forever transformed the Last Frontier.
Jean Potter tells comprehensively for the first time the life and flight of airmen like restless, modest Carl Ben Eielson, whose 1928 trans-Arctic hop is regarded by aviation experts as more daring than Lindbergh's hop to Paris; Joe Crosson, who rushed the bodies of Wiley Post and Will Rogers to the States after their Point Barrow disaster; Bob Reeve, uncanny glacier flyer; and "the world's craziest pilot," the clown Archie Ferguson. Her book is illustrated with photographs from the pilots' personal albums.… (more)

In 1924, the first mail plane was flown in Alaska and the era of the bush pilot began. Ben Eielson, Noel Wien, Bob Reeve, Harold Gillam and Joe Crosson are not well known today but they along with many others successfully challenged the wilderness and created a legend that endures even in the twenty-first century. The bush pilot is as much a part of Alaskan lore as the northern lights, and shows no sign of fading away. Originally published in 1945, The Flying North returns in this stunning reissue which includes previously unpublished material from author Jean Potter. It is the only book written on Alaska's early days in the air that draws on personal interviews with the men who were there. The Flying North presents Alaska as it was during the dawn of aviation, and how a group of dedicated pilots forever transformed the Last Frontier.… (more)