New York to Nome

by Rick Steber

Book Overview

True story of one of history's most remarkable expeditions, the 1936-1937 discovery of the Northwest Passage by two headstrong young men, Shell Taylor and Jeff Pope. The Guinness Book of World Records... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0945134444
• ISBN13: 9780945134442
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Bonanza Publishing
• Length: 168 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Adventure Tale

I just finished reading this book for the second time. It's truly a great story about a canoeing adventure that took place back when much of the Canadian wilderness was still wild. The canoeists encounter Cree indians who live in the bush, and forts isolated from all roads--fragments of a past long gone. It really is a shame their accomplishment has faded into obscurity. Searching the Web will find you virtually nothing about these two men and their voyage. Even the dearth of reviewers on this site is sad. They worked so hard to make this trip, expecting to make the history books, and then got mostly ignored. Though some may want more details, I felt what was included was more than enough to give a sense of this trip, the hardships and joys. True, it would have been nice to hear the "co-commander's" viewpoints; the author talked only to one of the two men (Shell) on the trip. And while his disparaging comments on his friend were often amusing, if mean, it made you wonder what the other guy (Jeff) would have said about the same incidents. Still, at least Shell was honest about his feelings, and didn't whitewash the trip. I loved reading about their encounters with various people living out in the wild, imaging these people living and dying with no record of their lives--until this book came out. The lighthouse keeper and his bed full of bugs, the Cree Indians who ate all the boys' bannock but then surprised them with their generosity, the hard-drinking people at the fort where they wintered--these people are all gone now, but thanks to this book, a portion of their lives has been brought back for us to learn about. The book is very well written, but more importantly entertaining and interesting.

Great adventure!

The book is not a great work of literature, but it is a great adventure story! A great and forgotten adventure - the longest canoe journey on record! A couple of questions: Does the film that the guys took still exist? If so, it would be great if it could be belatedly made into the movie that they had hoped for way back in then in the 1930's! The book wasn't made until the 1980's, about 50 years after the voyage. According to the author, both of the participants were still living at the time. Why didn't the author make the effort to contact the second voyageur in order to get his version of the events, especially since there were some disaparaging remarks made about him? Great adventure! When I lived in NYC I used to sea kayak and canoe in the rivers and lakes and sounds and oceans around the city. These two guys bought an old canoe, stuck it in the Hudson on 42nd Street, hopped in, and said they're paddling to Nome, Alaska! And they did! TGM

Wish I could have gone - except for the bugs!

The canoe trip of New York to Nome is an exceptional adventure. Although told many years later, it still brings the excitement of the trip to life. The book is a bit thin on details, I wished for more on how they packed, the gear they carried, how they set up camp. I wanted to know more because I love to sea kayak and camp and have gone on many multiday trips covering a hundred miles or more. But those trips are nothing compared to this one. Great book for adventurers who enjoy paddling, camping and the outdoors.