North to Wolf Country

James W. Brooks packed several lifetimes of adventure into his sixty-five years in Alaska -- working as a fisherman, trapper, musher, miner, wartime flyer, bush pilot, and whale biologist. In a beautifully written memoir, Brooks tells of being drawn to the North, where he lived off the land in the final years of the Territory of Alaska. Later, he served as commissioner of fish and game under two governors. Literally, Brooks lived and worked among the creatures of Alaska, from the walrus and seal habitatsof the Bering Sea to the commercial fisheries in the Panhandle, and from the vast waterfowl nesting grounds of the Southwest river deltas to the harsh Arctic home of the polar bear. Brooks balanced politics and science in dealing with battles over wildlife management including controversial aerial wolf hunting intended to conserve moose populations that feed many two-legged creatures of Alaska.