The high points in the story of Alaska since the American acquisition are brought vividly to life through more than 100 characters, real and fictional. Another told-from-the-beginning-of-time Michener saga, this one featuring Alaska. The book begins a billion years ago. Its first characters are the mastadon and the woolly mammoth, followed by such other settlers as the Eskimos, Athapaskans, and Russians. Vignettes of characters as varied as the Danish...

"America's preeminent storyteller, James Michener, introduced an entire generation of readers to a lush, exotic world in the Pacific in this classic novel. But this is a novel about people, people of strength and character: the original Polynesians; the fragile missionaries who came to bring their religion to the natives; the Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos who intermarried into a beautiful race called Hawaiians. Here is the story of their relationships,...

A biography of two bicycle mechanics from Ohio who stunned the world by inventing powered flight.