Update: Volume I of the Jesse Lee Home story is now available. Anne Homan's new Livermore book, already in second printing, has won "Gold Award" honors in a first-place tie for "Overall Best Book" plus "Best Interior" (see below, under "What's New ...").

And the Seward half of the Jesse Lee story should be out by spring.

Family After All: Alaska's Jesse Lee Home [Unalaska 1889-1925, Seward 1925-1965] is a two-volume collection of writings and reminiscences by and about the children and adults who called Jesse Lee "home" over three-quarters of a century. Poet/artist/historian Raymond Hudson, well-acquainted with Unalaska, has written Volume I, which was launched in September 2007 with author events in Unalaska, Homer and Anchorage. Seward-born Jacquelin Pels of Hardscratch Press is on deadline with Volume II. Feel free to inquire.

About Volume I, Ray Hudson says: “One of the most difficult parts of telling this story was trying to balance the good intentions of early missionaries with their sometimes uncharitable actions and words.” This is a story of at least three cultures in conflict: traditional Unangan families, the members of the Russian Orthodox hierarchy, and Protestant missionaries and the U.S. administrators who shared their views.

“One of the most enjoyable parts,” Hudson said, “was ‘meeting’ some of the children who lived in the Home.” These included Adlooat (an Eskimo artist from northern Alaska), Benny Benson (designer of the Alaska flag after the move to Seward), Jennie Alexander and Lucy Leavitt (Innuit girls from Herschel Island, in northern Canada, who arrived on whaling vessels), and others including Henry Swanson, a renowned storyteller and authority on the Aleutians.

The second half of the Jesse Lee story is told most often in the voices of the residents themselves, especially the children -- from recollections of the arrival at Seward to first-hand accounts of the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the town and eventually closed the Home. Woven through 40 years of photographs are narratives of loss and longing, hard work, high spirits, school days, the "merit system," and music, always music. Seward's community hospital and post-World War II tuberculosis sanatorium have their chapters as well. Finally, a celebration of the annual race up and down the 3,022-foot peak that rises behind the town -- the Mount Marathon story from a Jesse Lee perspective.

Volume I of Family After All is 400 pages, ISBN: 978-0-9789979-0-8. $33. Volume II is 800 pages, ISBN: 978-0-9789979-1-5, $37. Both include dozens of photos, extensive references, and a full index.

Historic Livermore, California: A - Z,  just out in May 2007 and already in second printing, is a generously illustrated and impressively researched encyclopedia of facts, photos and artifacts from Livermore author Anne Marshall Homan. The book "offers further proof that we Californians are living in a golden age of local history. What a pioneering and useful work of scholarship she has produced!" says Kevin Starr, professor of history at the University of Southern California. "Well-documented ... extensive notes, hundreds of delightful illustrations, and a rich bibliography ... the kind of local history that connects generations to each other and to a place," says Mary Morganti, director of library and archives of the California Historical Society. Meanwhile, Anne Homan's Morning Side of Mount Diablo is also in second printing. You may contact the author at annemarshall_2000@yahoo.com (925/443-9440) regarding either book.

This is not to forget two remarkable nonagenarians:

any tonnage, any ocean: conversations with a resolute alaskan: Walter Jackinsky Jr. of Ninilchik, Alaska, signed on at age 47 as an ordinary seaman for the 1963 launch of the M/V Malaspina, first of Alaska's famed marine highway ferries. Thirty-four years later he retired as senior captain and honorary commodore of the entire fleet. any tonnage, any ocean melds Alaska Native history and family drama, zest for travel and deep roots in the home place. The title refers to Jackinsky's hard-won master mariner's license – "high as you can go," he says with pride. Even more it conveys his no-limits approach to life in general. Today, fishing for salmon on Kachemak Bay or traveling the world, he still relishes the ride. As Alaska book reviewer Dee Longenbaugh noted in the Sitka Sentinel (also heard on KTOO public radio in Juneau), "If you feel sad about missed opportunities but too old to change, don't get a self-help book; buy Jackinsky!"

In Fin, Fur & Fiber: the life and [fishing] times of a new england textile man, antiques and art dealer Nelson F. Getchell tells his part of "a broad stretch of history" with extraordinary recall and dry, sometimes mordant New England wit, offset by the loving homage paid his parents and grandparents. "My father saw the last days of sailing ships; I am experiencing the last days of the American textile industry," he notes with regret. "Fur & Fiber" are well accounted for in his salty reminiscences. But "Fin" rightly gets top billing. From New England to Alaska and Newfoundland to Florida, from early boyhood to the current season, on two oceans and countless streams – Nelson Getchell has fished and still fishes. His first date with Martha, his wife of more than 60 years, was a moonlit outing in hip boots, hand-fishing for smelt. In the final chapter of his recollections, about the pets of a lifetime, he salutes a succession of fine dogs and memorable cats but reserves sentiment for George, a fish out of water. A good life, well told.

We also undertook a commission in 2006 for the Alaska Historical Society. the alaska 67: a guide to alaska's best history books was launched at the society's annual conference in Juneau. What an honor for Hardscratch Press to be asked to edit and produce this volume, and how proud we all are of the finished work, yet another handsome design by David Johnson. Alaska bookstores are carrying the book, or it may be purchased direct from AHS: www.alaskahistoricalsociety.org, or inquire by mail to P.O. Box 100299, Anchorage 99510-0299. Tell them we sent you!

"Each of the memoirs published since Hardscratch's founding in 1990 is handsome and meticulous in detail, illustrated with carefully chosen photographs and hand-drawn maps. ... They ask to be picked up and leafed through." – Contra Costa Times