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  • The Klondike Fever: The Life and Death of the Last Great Gold Rush
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The Klondike Fever: The Life and Death of the Last Great Gold Rush Kindle Edition

by Pierre Berton (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.6 out of 5 stars 287 ratings
4.2 on Goodreads
973 ratings
#1 Best Seller in Prospecting & Mining

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This thrilling story of the Klondike Gold Rush is at once first-rate history and first-rate entertainment. Some of the anecdotes of the last great gold rush have been told by others, but Pierre Berton is the first to distill the Klondike experience into a single, complete, coherent and immensely dramatic narrative. He spent 12 years in Dawson City researching the work. The entire tale has an epic ring, as much because of its splendid folly as because of its color and motion. The full story has never been told before, nor has it been told in this dramatic way.
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  1. Print length
    535 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Rare Treasure Editions
  4. Accessibility
    Learn more
  5. Publication date
    May 22 2024
  6. File size
    767 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Product description

Review

"The definitive account of an affair as wildly improbable as any in North American history."

About the Author

Prisoners of the North is Pierre Berton's fiftieth book. These include Klondike Fever, also available from Carroll & Graf; the New York Times bestseller, The Arctic Grail; Niagara; The Invasion of Canada; and Flames Across the Border. He received three Governor General's awards for non-fiction, two National Newspaper Awards, the Stephen Leacock Medal for Humour, and the National History Society's inaugural Pierre Berton Award. He was a member of the Newsman's Hall of Fame and a Companion of the Order of Canada and lived in Ontario until his death in 2005.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0CZBX25NP
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Rare Treasure Editions
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 22 2024
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 767 KB
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 535 pages
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1774648568
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • 鶹 Rank: #13,763 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 out of 5 stars 287 ratings

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Pierre Berton

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
287 global ratings

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Top reviews from Canada

  • Glen G Stone
    5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive Gold Rush book
    Reviewed in Canada on June 6, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Pierre Berton was the de facto "History Laureate" of Canada; a gifted writer and meticulous researcher who became the nation's most celebrated and beloved storyteller. Klondike is Berton at his best, both tremendously informative and wildly entertaining. His passion for telling the full tale both accurately and in admiration of the adventure shines through on every page. Highly recommended.

    (Readers should be warned that some of the language and racial attitudes are offensive by today's standards.)
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  • Jeffery Pugh
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great read!
    Reviewed in Canada on September 6, 2023
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    Excellent book - highly recommend!
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  • Nicholas J. Fairbanks
    4.0 out of 5 stars The Klondike Fever
    Reviewed in Canada on May 27, 2004
    I recently read this book for my economics class. This books gives a new dimension to what happened during the gold rushes. This book focuses on the Klondike, one of the last great gold rushes. It gives great details into the way people lived and survived in the destructive climate that is the Klondike. It gives the reader an opportunity to read about the many people who "made it" and the many people who "failed". From poor factory workers who find thousands of dollars in gold to the people that were standing upon a fortune and didn't even know it. You will learn about the rise and fall of the "dictator" of Skagway. It gives you a glimpse into the mindset of a person going off to find his or her fortune. Overall I think it was a very well written book. I found many parts interesting. There was one thing that I didn't like though. This was the fact there were so many little stories mixed in with the bigger picture. I felt that at the end of the book I didn't really remember the people mentioned in the beginning of the book. I give this book a four. Hats off to Mr. Pierre Berton
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  • JR
    5.0 out of 5 stars Klondike Pierre Berton
    Reviewed in Canada on January 13, 2019
    I asked in Dawson city a simple question to some local: if you have time for only one book about the gold rush, which one would you recommend...
    Without hesitation he said... this one. Klondike.
    And he was right. A well , very well documented book. Well written and full of real and well verified stories.
    If you have time just for one... it’s this one!
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  • Roger McEvilly
    5.0 out of 5 stars A remarkable story of life.......
    Reviewed in Canada on August 8, 2001
    Mr Berton you excel yourself. This book is very well written, meticulously accurate, entertaining, and justifies its reputation as one of the very best accounts of the last of the great gold rushes. As Mr Berton says, who grew up in the site of the infamous rush in Dawson City, "it was certainly one of the strangest mass movements of human beings in history.". At least 100,000 people from all over the world set out seriously for the gold fields on the remote Klondike Valley in the late 1890s. (Probably at least 5 times that many set out half seriously, but never managed to get even close to the Klondike). Of these, only around 30,000 actually made it to their destination. Of those who made it, only around 0.5% actually made any money. Of those only a handful managed to keep thier money for the remainder of their lives. A handful. Thousands perished on route, most of these succumbing to poorly planned expeditions, over mountainous passes and remote icefields that they never dreamed of when they set out. Most of those who actually arrived in the remote location were too exhausted financially, emotionally and physically, to bother looking for gold. Furthermore, when they arrived they found that all the land was already staked. Most simply booked a ticket on the nearest steamship, and went home.
    Amongst the way there were many bizzare and tragic stories, which are too many to detail here. Avalanches, sunken ships, freezing winters, con-men, women, children, old men and young, gamblers, dance hall girls, swindlers, dead horses, suicides, -they were all there. The desperate, the poor, the rich, the ignorant, the informed, the millionaire and the pauper alike, rubbed shoulders in a wild human exodus that has seen little like it, before or since. Some of the stories Mr Berton meticulously relates, simply beg belief. It was a time of general insanity, set amidst a terrible depression, which helped spark off the 'fever', or mania being a more apt term. After news arrived of fabulous riches in gold found in Dawson, some tried to get to Dawson on bicycle, others on huge wheeled contraptions, others thought they would walk there with a handful of nuts. What many didn't realise, was that there was a reason this phenomenoly rich gold field was discovered so late in time compared to many others-it was absurdly difficult to get to. Experienced, grizzley old miners would have had serious trouble getting and surviving there over several winters, to the average office clerk, dentist and city type, it was nigh impossible-as they soon found. Many were conned and caught up in a general mania, whilst many others died. All the stories, all the tragedies, the colour, the mania, the lucky and the unlucky are described.
    James Michener thought much of the book, and based his novel Journey, another exellent story of this gold rush, on parts of the Edmonton stories contained herein.
    It is a story of humanity as good as any. A delight to read on cold winters nights, in the safety and security of a warm fire, a homely house, and a hot meal. Many in this book gave up this and more for a dream that could never be fulfilled, for they were too late, and even though they were willing to die trying.
    They didn't know that the past was already behind them....
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  • SDL
    5.0 out of 5 stars Read before you cruise!
    Reviewed in Canada on July 17, 2003
    This is the book I bought in Skagway, Alaska that I wish I had read BEFORE I visited gold rush country. So many times when reading it I thought to myself "I wish I had known this a week ago when I was standing there where it happened!" It's a facinating read. So before you take that Alaska cruise, read this book!
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  • raamer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Universal story about people, greed, and dreams
    Reviewed in Canada on November 7, 1999
    It's truly amazing what people will do when really motivated. The Klondike goldrush is one of many past happenings that tells us so much about our species. Berton recounts many true stories about historical figures and ordinary people who perservered and often fell victim to their own ill-conceived dreams. The admirable American frontier spirit is revealed in this book too with all of its blemishes. I guess that's the value of reading history. Many parallels with todays digital goldrush too. I highly recommend this book especially if you plan a cruise or adventure trip to Alaska. Very entertaining! And does Soapy Smith reminds you of any currently successful politicians?
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  • Tom N.
    4.0 out of 5 stars sharing the wealth
    Reviewed in Canada on May 20, 2004
    This is an amazing book containing thrilling stories based on the "last great gold rush". Berton tells these stories in so much detail, that you'd think that you were traveling the Klondike, looking for treasure. It makes you realize that these prospectors were playing a real-life game of "hot or cold" when they got so close to a strike and left to search somewhere else. A must read for anyone who likes adventure stories.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • A.C.Tatchell
    5.0 out of 5 stars Realy good
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 11, 2013
    Verified Purchase
    This is a grate book, I found by a recommendation in a travel guide to the Yukon as the best and most complete disruption of the Klondike gold rush. I read is just before and during our 2 week journey along the gold rush route starting in Seattle up to Skagway, Whitehorse and an on to Dawson City. It relay fills in the detail and story's, that road side story boards (Which their are a lot of) and tours can't tell you. Also the enormity of the folly and the hardship the people endured just for gold.
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  • D. Berry
    5.0 out of 5 stars Highly recommended to anyone who wants to know more about this time in our history
    Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    I ordered this Kindle edition to get more of an understanding of the experience of the Klondike gold rush after reading my grandfather's diaries that he kept while mining for gold on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska between 1898-1903. After reading this, it is clear that he made a wise choice in going where he did, rather than over the Chilkoot or White Pass trails into the Yukon. He came out if it with expenses barely covered and a stock certificate, now in my possession, entitling him to 300,000 shares of stock in his mining company at $1 per share, which he never saw a dime of. But back to the book - I thoroughly enjoyed it from beginning to end. The author's personal connection to the locale and the times, plus his extensive research and his engaging writing style, really conveys the intensity - and insanity - of this last great gold rush, and the people who put everything on the line to be a part of it, for better or worse (mostly worse). I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about this time in our history.
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  • Diane O'Riley
    5.0 out of 5 stars If you are looking for the one book that truly helps us understand what it must have been like for the stampeders
    Reviewed in the United States on August 24, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    Pierre Berton has saved the legacy that is the Klondike gold rush by putting together perhaps the most complete compilation on the subject ever written. This book is superbly written with firsthand accounts and the utmost historical credibility. If you are looking for the one book that truly helps us understand what it must have been like for the stampeders, this is it. Berton lets the story of the gold rush tell itself, and it comes to life on every page and with every character that was a part of the history of the Klondike. If you buy this book you should consider purchasing Berton's companion to this which is called "The Klondike Quest A Photographic Essay." (ISBN# 978-1-55046-453-5) This book has an amazing amount of authentic photos from the gold rush that gives a visualization of what he writes about in Klondike Fever. I wholeheartedly recommend them both. Thank you Pierre Berton for both of these treasures, they are a piece of history that I will cherish for a lifetime!
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  • Soulman
    5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive account of the Klondike gold rush
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 17, 2016
    Verified Purchase
    This is essential reading for anyone who has visited or is going to visit Alaska and the Yukon territory of Canada. It was written by someone who lived in Dawson City and found out about the gold rush at first hand
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  • Junie
    4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 26, 2012
    Verified Purchase
    As another huge fan of the American West and the old days of the Klondike....this is great reading. You feel like you are right there with these people on a fantastic adventure.
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