"Alaska! Even today, the mere sound of the name touches off heady dreams of romance and adventures. But imagine what it was like in the early days of the Klondike gold rush, just before the turn of the century. Imagine what it was like for a woman.

It was the last frontier of the American dream -- the dream of discovery and pioneering and the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow -- or just over the next snow-covered hill. It was a restless, violent land, a rich-one-day-and-poor-the-next land, a let's-move-on-to-the-next-strike land.

Only a woman who lived through it could know what it was like -- and Alaska was home for Klondy Nelson from the time she was four years old until she was a grown woman. Klondy's father was a prospector whose compulsive search for gold transcended everything else in his life, even his family. He struck out for the Klondike alone when Klondy was a baby. Four years later his wife and child joined him, and Klondy grew up in the boom town of Nome. It was a tough, raucous, violent town for a little girl. Prospectors, gamblers, claim jumpers and prostitutes rubbed elbows with famous explorers like Wilkins and Amundsen, and promoters like Tex Rickard, who ran a saloon in Nome. Klondy knew them all (even an ambitious kid called Jimmy, who later came to be known as General Doolittle!) and took her world in stride. Even after her father -- still looking for a bigger strike on the other side of the hill -- left his wife and two children forever, the little family kept going. Klondy did not leave Alaska until she went to study music in the States, and she resolved then and there never to return to the primitive life of the North. But that was before she met Frank Dufresne. His job was wild-life reconnaissance in Alaska and points north, and when she married him, Klondy went right back to Alaska! Buoyed up by love and the excitement of a new kind of frontier life, Klondy traveled with her husband by dog sled, kept house for Frank and their baby daughter in a cabin boat, made friends with the Eskimos -- and once even shot a bear to save her child's life!

Truth is not only stranger than fiction -- it is often more exciting, as you will find when you read Daugher of the Gold Rush. And shining through this lifetime high adventure is the superb courage and mature understanding of a woman who, undaunted by circumstances, achieved a large measure of happiness for herself and others."

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The Fine Print: This book was copyright in 1955 and 1956 by Curtis Publishing, and again in 1958 by the authors.  The thing is, the Library of Congress Catalog number indicates printing in 1958, not the previous dates.  Anyway, I'm not an expert -- I'm a reader, and this is a great read. There is not writing on the interior, nor did I see any flipped down page corners.

Anyway, there's spotting to the dust jacket along with wear and fraying at the edges.  The dj was folded too, and, as above -- the price was clipped. There's one other quirky thing about this book. In the front it indicates a photograph section between pages 120 and 121.  Those picture pages are actually found between 116-117. Another thing is the spine -- the lettering is still shiny and looking good. 

The book is a fast read -- well written and interesting. Reading about life in the cold north along with survival before conveniences is an added bonus.  I particularly liked how she (Klondy) isn't perfect.  She's got some quirks and is willing to share her life / learning experiences with the reader.  You'll like this book -- I guarantee it! :)

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