Journey

James A. Michener

Published by Guild Publishing , hardcover with duskjacket , illustrated

SHIP'S IN WITH A TON OF SOLID GOLD ON BOARD! In July 1897 this dramatic headline, emblazoned on newspapers around the world, captures the imaginations of adventurers everywhere. In England, Lord Evelyn Luton, veteran explorer and born leader of men, resolves to set sail at once for the Klondike goldfields of Canada.

He persuades his cousin, the courageous Harry Carpenter; his eager nephew, Philip Henslow; and Philip's friend Trevor Blythe, to join him in this perilous quest for gold. Luton's Irish gamekeeper, Timothy Fogarty, makes up the party. Luton's devotion to Empire leads him to stipulate one, ultimately disastrous condition: his party must journey to Dawson City without setting foot on American soil.

From the frontier town of Edmonton, which teems with goldseekers, Luton leads his party down the Athabasca and Mackenzie rivers into the most inhospitable climate and landscape these men have ever faced. Friendship, leadership, compassion, common sense, even life itself are in peril as the men drift ever closer to winter — and danger — in the desolate Canadian tundra.

Journey is not only the compelling story of a quest for gold, a drama of men pitted against nature, and a tragedy about the folly of arbitrary command, it is also the story of a story. In a startling break from literary convention, Michener has written a candid postscript which tells how Journey came to be a novel. For the first time, Michener gives readers his personal thoughts and insights into the writer's craft and into the process of editing and publishing.