What do you think?
Rate this book
I Married the Klondike
In 1907, Laura Beatrice Berton, a 29-year-old kindergarten teacher, left her comfortable life in Toronto Ontario to teach in a Yukon mining town. She fell in love with the North--and with a northerner--and made Dawson City her home for the next 25 years. I Married the Klondike is her classic and enduring memoir.
When she first arrived by steamboat in Dawson City, Berton expected to find a rough mining town full of grizzled miners, scarlet-clad Mounties and dance-hall girls. And while these and other memorable characters did abound, she quickly discovered why the town was nicknamed the "Paris of the North." Although the gold rush was over, the townsfolk still clung to the lavishness of the city's golden era and the young teacher soon found herself hosting tea parties once a month, attending formal dinners, dancing the minuet at fancy balls and going on elaborate sleighing parties. In the background a famous poet wrote ballads on his cabin wall, an archbishop lost on the tundra ate his boots to survive and men living on dreams of riches grew old panning the creeks for gold.
While thousands of people left the Klondike each October on the "last boat out" and Dawson City slowly decayed around her, the author remained true to her northern home. Humorous, poignant and filled with stories of both drudgery and decadence, I Married the Klondike is an unforgettable book by a brave and intelligent woman.
"I have read many books on the Yukon, but this is different. It is the gallant personality of the author which shines on every page, and makes her chronicle a saga of the High North."
--Robert Service, poet "The Cremation of Sam McGee"
When she first arrived by steamboat in Dawson City, Berton expected to find a rough mining town full of grizzled miners, scarlet-clad Mounties and dance-hall girls. And while these and other memorable characters did abound, she quickly discovered why the town was nicknamed the "Paris of the North." Although the gold rush was over, the townsfolk still clung to the lavishness of the city's golden era and the young teacher soon found herself hosting tea parties once a month, attending formal dinners, dancing the minuet at fancy balls and going on elaborate sleighing parties. In the background a famous poet wrote ballads on his cabin wall, an archbishop lost on the tundra ate his boots to survive and men living on dreams of riches grew old panning the creeks for gold.
While thousands of people left the Klondike each October on the "last boat out" and Dawson City slowly decayed around her, the author remained true to her northern home. Humorous, poignant and filled with stories of both drudgery and decadence, I Married the Klondike is an unforgettable book by a brave and intelligent woman.
"I have read many books on the Yukon, but this is different. It is the gallant personality of the author which shines on every page, and makes her chronicle a saga of the High North."
--Robert Service, poet "The Cremation of Sam McGee"
232 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1961
22 people are currently reading
392 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 86 reviews
November 18, 2023
This is a special book for me, because I lived for 3 months in the house in which the author raised her family in Dawson City, Yukon. As an unmarried young school teacher she accepted a job in Dawson, not realizing how that decision would shape her life. Some of the language used in the 1950s when the book was written is jarring today; however as an account of a young female living in a land of men, encountering racism, sexism, and fierce small town snobbery and class divisions, this book is important.
The introduction by the poet Robert W. Service, who knew the young schoolteacher, is snarky and condescending, which illustrates some of the attitudes she would have had to endure.
The author was born into an educated Toronto family. I’ll leave you with a couple of sentences about political divisions cleaving Dawson society: “Actually, I suppose if I was anything, I was a socialist out of respect to my father. None of my Conservative friends minded this, for in those days to be a Socialist was to be merely eccentric, while to be a Liberal was to be damned for ever.”
The introduction by the poet Robert W. Service, who knew the young schoolteacher, is snarky and condescending, which illustrates some of the attitudes she would have had to endure.
The author was born into an educated Toronto family. I’ll leave you with a couple of sentences about political divisions cleaving Dawson society: “Actually, I suppose if I was anything, I was a socialist out of respect to my father. None of my Conservative friends minded this, for in those days to be a Socialist was to be merely eccentric, while to be a Liberal was to be damned for ever.”
September 12, 2016
I picked up this book in the White Pass Railway visitor center in Skagway after the round trip train ride. It is a fascinating memoir of an independent woman who headed to the Klondike and stayed for 25 years.
April 30, 2019
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. As Robert Service said, "It is the gallant personality of the author which shines on every page, and makes her chronicle a saga og the High North."
The author, Laura Berton is Pierre Berton's mother and incidentally the wife of my great uncle Frank Berton.
Laura Berton went to the Klondike as a kindergarten teacher, intending to stay one year for the experience, but never left. She met Frank Berton there, who was not a gold seeker and worked different jobs until appointed to a government office.
While in Whitehorse, Laura gave birth to her son Pierre. Several years later, in Dawson, she gave birth to a daughter.
This is her experiences of housekeeping and its trial and tribulations in the far north and the traditions of Dawson and the many unusual characters met there and the friends made.
It is well written and a very interesting chronicle.
The author, Laura Berton is Pierre Berton's mother and incidentally the wife of my great uncle Frank Berton.
Laura Berton went to the Klondike as a kindergarten teacher, intending to stay one year for the experience, but never left. She met Frank Berton there, who was not a gold seeker and worked different jobs until appointed to a government office.
While in Whitehorse, Laura gave birth to her son Pierre. Several years later, in Dawson, she gave birth to a daughter.
This is her experiences of housekeeping and its trial and tribulations in the far north and the traditions of Dawson and the many unusual characters met there and the friends made.
It is well written and a very interesting chronicle.
May 15, 2008
This is one of my all-time favorite books! I first discovered it while in Dawson City,Yukon Territory, Canada, during the sumer of 1974. It's the true story of Laura Beatrice Berton who came to Dawson City in 1907 as a young schoolteacher. It also traces the histroy of Dawson City. Preface is by an old beau of the author, Robert Service. Foreward is by the author's son, the reknowned Pierre Berton, a well-known Canadian author, television personality, historian, etc. It's a great story told by an fascinating woman.
August 8, 2020
I have read this old favorite several times, and enjoyed the TV series based on it. Laura Beatrice Berton was 29 years old and considered an "old maid" when she went to teach kindergarten in Dawson City in 1907. With the Klondike Gold Rush long over, Dawson was a remote, sleepy backwater filled with strange characters and strange customs. There she found a husband and a community that became her home for many years. This is a very readable and entertaining memoir by a woman whose bravery and sense of adventure I truly admire.
April 26, 2024
A really interesting first person perspective to life in the Klondike after the heyday of the gold rush. It paints such a vivid picture that you feel transported back in time and it reinforces the mysterious allure of Dawson.
February 20, 2016
My little brother and brother-in-law sent me I Married the Klondike for Christmas. It's really a miracle that I actually got to read it because my husband claimed it first and preceded to leave it in a hotel room in Idaho while he was working there. Housekeeping found it and was able to send it back to us so I got my turn. I give it three out of five stars. This is a memoir written about the authors years living in the Klondike. She went as a kindergarten teacher, expecting to stay just one year but ended up spending many years up north. I only give it three stars because, even though I enjoyed it, the author wrote mostly just the facts about life in Dawson City and left all emotion out of it. That being said, it was still a very interesting read.
August 5, 2018
I couldn't put the book down. An excellent book to read if you're at all interested in the days of the gold rush and shortly after or if you've toured Alaska. Mrs. Berton lived through a great historical time in Dawson City and Whitehorse. You feel like you're actually there with Laura as she experiences daily living, including tragic deaths of friends and the births of her children. Her memoir begins with herself, a 29-year-old teacher living in Toronto, being asked to move to Dawson City-Yukon territory to teach Kindergarten and slowly becoming immersed in the ways of the miners and others who have made Dawson City their home. Eventually marrying, she and her husband raise their children and stay in Dawson for 25 years after many of the townsfolk left to find fortune elsewhere.
July 1, 2018
I really enjoyed this memoir written by a woman who in 1907, at the age of 29, moved to a Yukon mining town to teach kindergarten. Full of so many interesting stories and characters.
June 29, 2020
Interesting perspective on the harsh but glittery and captivating life up north! Matter of fact telling and I was especially amazed at how life was so different 100 years ago.
June 16, 2022
This was an amazing colourful snapshot of a unique time in Canadian history. Loved it!
April 19, 2022
Absolutely wonderful tale of a brave woman in the early frontier days. I stand amazed at all she faced. Very engaging.
July 28, 2018
I bought this in a used book store in Vancouver as we ended a land/sea trip to Alaska. It was a perfect way to keep the northwest in mind as we returned home to the east coast of the U.S. Although we only visited Haines, not Skagway, I had read children's books about gold miners rushing to the Yukon in the late 19th century and this brought back facts that I had gleaned from them. Apparently if you are from Canada you might have read excerpts from this book during your school years and it gave a excellent view of the declining years of the Yukon, especially Dawson, after the main gold rush years. Laura Berton traveled to Dawson as a 29 year old Kindergarten teacher in 1907 and ended up spending most of the next 25 years there. As other reviewers have noted, she does detail many of the facts of living in such a remote area but she also treats us to life & emotions during cold, dark winters where you and your housemates easily could fall out with each other. Of course in the long daylight summers, plants grew enormously, insects were everywhere and the population doubled only to lead once again to the coming winter. I can see why this book is a classic.
June 12, 2024
Second hand book stores often hold interesting finds, including this memoir published in 1955. It is the story of a strong woman at a time in history when the Canadian North was still sparsely settled and a place for those seeking something different in life.
Laura Beatrice Berton grew up in a well-to-do family and in comfortable circumstances in Toronto. When she was twenty-nine and a qualified kindergarten teacher working for $480 dollars a year, she was offered a job teaching in the Klondike and accepted it, pleased at the substantial increase in salary to $1200 a year, but also looking forward to the opportunity for an adventure. Her family and friends were against the move and believed she was making a rash decision, but Laura decided she would try it for a year, see how things went and then decide her next steps. The North had a reputation of a dangerous place, full of hard drinking miners, wild dance halls girls and all types of criminals, but Laura was looking for both a change and some adventure and stuck to her decision, scoffing at her mother’s suggestion she wear a wedding ring to protect herself! What she initially considered a one-year experiment, grew to be a twenty-five year long stay during which she married, had children and enjoyed a very different life in the Canadian North she had grown to love. This memoir details her life during that time, one filled with historically accurate details, interesting characters and descriptions of a life she had never expected.
Getting to Dawson City was the first stage of her adventure. She traveled first to Vancouver and then took a ferry North to Skagway Alaska. From there she boarded a train over the mountains to Whitehorse and finally, a steamboat ride down the Yukon River to Dawson. Along the way she met Robert Service, who lived across the street where Laura and three other teachers rented a house for twenty-five dollars a month.
When Laura arrived in Dawson, the height of the 1898 goldrush was over and the city, which at one time had consisted of over thirty thousand people was now down to twelve thousand, with more leaving every day. Those left behind created a diverse mix of people from a variety of countries including not only Canadians and Americans, but people from Latin American, South Africa and Japan. As people left the city, they left many of their possessions behind, as they were too expensive or cumbersome to transport. Everything from beds, gold pans, stoves, fur coats and rubber boots all became available for purchase in the second-hand shops. Despite the exodus, the city did not wither and die but hung on to aspects of its glorious past when it was known as “The Paris of the North”.
Laura expected to find grizzled miners, Mounties in their blazing red uniforms, colorful dance hall girls and “painted ladies” of the night, but she also discovered a society, a social life and a cosmopolitan atmosphere she never expected. There were shops that displayed dresses, gowns and hats from Paris, fine linens and Limoges china. The sales of these high-end items were fueled by the events held and attended by those with social standing in the community. They were the government workers, political figures, judges, church officials, merchants and those who headed large businesses. Formal calling cards were still in use and Laura found herself hosting afternoon tea parties, preparing stuffed olives, salted almonds and home-made candies for “At Home” events and attending formal dinners with eight course meals, when they wore evening clothes and danced the minuet.
Laura populates her narrative with some humour, with a number of anecdotes and character sketches, including portraits of people known by the quixotic names of Apple Jimmy, Big Alex, Dolly Orchard, Diamond Tooth Gert and The Bird. On a more somber note, there is also the sad story of a Mountie patrol that lost its way in the cold winter and starved to death, a grim reminder of the dangerous role the weather played in this northern climate.
She describes the high prices for food and clothes which all had to be shipped in from outside. There were times during the winter when the city was virtually cut off from the outside world and people had to plan carefully to navigate these periods.
She also describes the midnight sun that did not set until midnight in the summer, and then only for an hour and a half, leaving her students restless and distracted from lack of sleep. Then in early December the sun disappeared for two months, bringing with it a ruthless cold when temperatures dropped to below fifty degrees Celsius. Laura dressed in everything she owned to bear the frigid weather and her students all wore ground length coon-skin and muskrat coats.
In one of the more engaging sections, Laura describes how she and her teacher friends, curious about “the painted ladies” from the red light district across the river, pretended to go berry picking so they could spy on them during the daylight hours. They were surprised by what they found, as these ladies chatted, sang and laughed, while waiters from a nearby hotel served them food and drinks from silver trays.
Laura met Frank Berton on a trip to the goldfields. He was an educated man, a miner and engineer who loved the outdoor life and had bravely crossed the formidable Chilcoot Pass during the Gold Rush. They married in 1912 and had two children, their first a son they named Pierre, born when Laura was forty-one and a daughter Lucy who followed about a year later. She mentions little of her family life or her children, not even including their names. But their son Pierre grew up to be a well-known and award-winning author, historian, journalist and TV personality and an icon in Canadian literature. She does however, describe the summer the family traveled up the Yukon River in a keel boat Frank had built and camped on the various small islands.
For those who enjoy history, stories of strong women and a look at life in the Klondike during this period, this is an excellent book to read if you can get your hands on one. It is one of the more enjoyable memoirs I have read.
Laura Beatrice Berton grew up in a well-to-do family and in comfortable circumstances in Toronto. When she was twenty-nine and a qualified kindergarten teacher working for $480 dollars a year, she was offered a job teaching in the Klondike and accepted it, pleased at the substantial increase in salary to $1200 a year, but also looking forward to the opportunity for an adventure. Her family and friends were against the move and believed she was making a rash decision, but Laura decided she would try it for a year, see how things went and then decide her next steps. The North had a reputation of a dangerous place, full of hard drinking miners, wild dance halls girls and all types of criminals, but Laura was looking for both a change and some adventure and stuck to her decision, scoffing at her mother’s suggestion she wear a wedding ring to protect herself! What she initially considered a one-year experiment, grew to be a twenty-five year long stay during which she married, had children and enjoyed a very different life in the Canadian North she had grown to love. This memoir details her life during that time, one filled with historically accurate details, interesting characters and descriptions of a life she had never expected.
Getting to Dawson City was the first stage of her adventure. She traveled first to Vancouver and then took a ferry North to Skagway Alaska. From there she boarded a train over the mountains to Whitehorse and finally, a steamboat ride down the Yukon River to Dawson. Along the way she met Robert Service, who lived across the street where Laura and three other teachers rented a house for twenty-five dollars a month.
When Laura arrived in Dawson, the height of the 1898 goldrush was over and the city, which at one time had consisted of over thirty thousand people was now down to twelve thousand, with more leaving every day. Those left behind created a diverse mix of people from a variety of countries including not only Canadians and Americans, but people from Latin American, South Africa and Japan. As people left the city, they left many of their possessions behind, as they were too expensive or cumbersome to transport. Everything from beds, gold pans, stoves, fur coats and rubber boots all became available for purchase in the second-hand shops. Despite the exodus, the city did not wither and die but hung on to aspects of its glorious past when it was known as “The Paris of the North”.
Laura expected to find grizzled miners, Mounties in their blazing red uniforms, colorful dance hall girls and “painted ladies” of the night, but she also discovered a society, a social life and a cosmopolitan atmosphere she never expected. There were shops that displayed dresses, gowns and hats from Paris, fine linens and Limoges china. The sales of these high-end items were fueled by the events held and attended by those with social standing in the community. They were the government workers, political figures, judges, church officials, merchants and those who headed large businesses. Formal calling cards were still in use and Laura found herself hosting afternoon tea parties, preparing stuffed olives, salted almonds and home-made candies for “At Home” events and attending formal dinners with eight course meals, when they wore evening clothes and danced the minuet.
Laura populates her narrative with some humour, with a number of anecdotes and character sketches, including portraits of people known by the quixotic names of Apple Jimmy, Big Alex, Dolly Orchard, Diamond Tooth Gert and The Bird. On a more somber note, there is also the sad story of a Mountie patrol that lost its way in the cold winter and starved to death, a grim reminder of the dangerous role the weather played in this northern climate.
She describes the high prices for food and clothes which all had to be shipped in from outside. There were times during the winter when the city was virtually cut off from the outside world and people had to plan carefully to navigate these periods.
She also describes the midnight sun that did not set until midnight in the summer, and then only for an hour and a half, leaving her students restless and distracted from lack of sleep. Then in early December the sun disappeared for two months, bringing with it a ruthless cold when temperatures dropped to below fifty degrees Celsius. Laura dressed in everything she owned to bear the frigid weather and her students all wore ground length coon-skin and muskrat coats.
In one of the more engaging sections, Laura describes how she and her teacher friends, curious about “the painted ladies” from the red light district across the river, pretended to go berry picking so they could spy on them during the daylight hours. They were surprised by what they found, as these ladies chatted, sang and laughed, while waiters from a nearby hotel served them food and drinks from silver trays.
Laura met Frank Berton on a trip to the goldfields. He was an educated man, a miner and engineer who loved the outdoor life and had bravely crossed the formidable Chilcoot Pass during the Gold Rush. They married in 1912 and had two children, their first a son they named Pierre, born when Laura was forty-one and a daughter Lucy who followed about a year later. She mentions little of her family life or her children, not even including their names. But their son Pierre grew up to be a well-known and award-winning author, historian, journalist and TV personality and an icon in Canadian literature. She does however, describe the summer the family traveled up the Yukon River in a keel boat Frank had built and camped on the various small islands.
For those who enjoy history, stories of strong women and a look at life in the Klondike during this period, this is an excellent book to read if you can get your hands on one. It is one of the more enjoyable memoirs I have read.
August 9, 2018
Eleven years after the Klondike Gold Rush, Laura Beatrice Berton received an invitation to leave her teaching position in Toronto and teach kindergarten in Dawson City, Yukon. The remainder of this memoir details the next 25 years teaching, marrying and raising a family in the Yukon territory.
If this book was not selected by my local book discussion group, I would not have read this book. Several times I considered putting it down; however, a review of fifteen Amazon reviews yielded between a 4.6 star review and I thought others might be seeing something I did not. Completing the book, I must disagree. Overall I found the memoir boring detailing an endless parade of individuals the author met in the Yukon. It was only in the final chapters did I feel that the author truly described the land.
If this book was not selected by my local book discussion group, I would not have read this book. Several times I considered putting it down; however, a review of fifteen Amazon reviews yielded between a 4.6 star review and I thought others might be seeing something I did not. Completing the book, I must disagree. Overall I found the memoir boring detailing an endless parade of individuals the author met in the Yukon. It was only in the final chapters did I feel that the author truly described the land.
Read
October 27, 2019The author beautifully reflects and recounts her life in the gold rush era of the Klondike. She captures the spirit of the resilient people who lived in the harsh and extreme conditions of the Yukon. She tells the stories of those who risked and lost their lives to undertake the perilous journey to get to the goldfields and also the amazing stories of survival of those who chose to stay and make a life there. It is her personal story as an emigrant and settler, wife and mother in this remote place
It is indeed deserving of its classic position in Canadian literature
It is indeed deserving of its classic position in Canadian literature
November 7, 2017
Amazing story of a kindergarten teacher who travelled from Toronto to Dawson just after the gold rush had ended. Her account of 25 years living there, with lavish parties seemed a little unreal, but the stories of the desperate lives of the gold miners and their sometimes horrendous deaths is riveting. Her strong character shines through - she makes today's accounts of travelling to new countries to set up home seem easy by comparison!
December 23, 2013
Now I know where Laura's son Pierre Berton got his writing talent. Laura writes such an interesting and amusing account of her time in the north that I raced through this book. It doesn't really fall into the "pioneer memoir" category because Dawson City was unlike any other place on earth. I found this book to be not only entertaining, but very informative.
September 20, 2019
Autobiography . Woman who went to the Klondike to teach in Dawson city and later married a man there and raised two children. Tells the amazing story of life during and after the gold rush. Fascinating.
November 15, 2019
I liked the book, but I felt it could have been written a little better. It seemed like it focused on so very many people who came in and out of her life. Realizing it was a memoir, the author wrote about her life. It just seemed to lack direction.
October 8, 2017
The author's adventure in northern Canada. Her son is Pierre Berton who has written many books about Canada. I enjoyed reading it and learned a lot about life in the north in early days.
February 16, 2021
I really enjoyed this book. It is not a love story about Laura's relationship with Frank Berton. I think I got the impression from the cover of my edition, and the synopsis, that it would be (Mine is the version depicting the CBC television drama). She talks about meeting Frank, how they finally married, and their life together, but that aspect of the story is very matter-of-fact, not romantic. And yet it is a love story of Laura's relationship with Dawson City.
After reading her detailed account of the people (her neighbours and friends, as well as the odd folk who set out to discover gold and were transformed by the place), the city streets, the buildings, the parties, the weather, the river... I have a desire to visit Dawson myself and find some of the spots she describes so vividly. Her account is so personal, I often laughed, and I got quite choked up by some of the stories of individuals and their experiences with the harsh realities of northern life.
This book is a terrific way to learn history. If I ever do visit Dawson I will take this book along as a sort of travel guide, so I can stand in some of the spots and say, "This is where Laura Berton says A Thing took place." :-)
After reading her detailed account of the people (her neighbours and friends, as well as the odd folk who set out to discover gold and were transformed by the place), the city streets, the buildings, the parties, the weather, the river... I have a desire to visit Dawson myself and find some of the spots she describes so vividly. Her account is so personal, I often laughed, and I got quite choked up by some of the stories of individuals and their experiences with the harsh realities of northern life.
This book is a terrific way to learn history. If I ever do visit Dawson I will take this book along as a sort of travel guide, so I can stand in some of the spots and say, "This is where Laura Berton says A Thing took place." :-)
May 7, 2025
A great book that reads like a novel, though in reality is an autobiography. Berton tells the story of her life, coming to the Yukon just after the gold rush, falling under the spell of the Yukon as they say and staying for most of her life.
This book reads like you’re listening to your grandma tell stories from her youth, or reading your family history. Despite the fact that I’m not from the Yukon, it seems almost everyone from Canada knows someone who’s lived there or maybe they’ve visited themselves. People came from all over to the Yukon, and the stories told touch on the many corners of Canada and the world.
Reading this book, I am reminded of the strength and perseverance of those before us. I don’t like when people say that society has gone soft now in the 21st century, but as I read of everything they had to overcome, well it’s the closest I’ve ever been to agreeing. Weeks along a boat for what would be a couple hour drive. Or for those who first came to the Yukon, weeks on a sled, or walking with a massive sack on their back. Surviving bear attacks so brutal, you shouldn’t have, but did indeed survive due to sheer strength, grit and stubborn will.
My granddad lent me this book and I’m glad he did.
This book reads like you’re listening to your grandma tell stories from her youth, or reading your family history. Despite the fact that I’m not from the Yukon, it seems almost everyone from Canada knows someone who’s lived there or maybe they’ve visited themselves. People came from all over to the Yukon, and the stories told touch on the many corners of Canada and the world.
Reading this book, I am reminded of the strength and perseverance of those before us. I don’t like when people say that society has gone soft now in the 21st century, but as I read of everything they had to overcome, well it’s the closest I’ve ever been to agreeing. Weeks along a boat for what would be a couple hour drive. Or for those who first came to the Yukon, weeks on a sled, or walking with a massive sack on their back. Surviving bear attacks so brutal, you shouldn’t have, but did indeed survive due to sheer strength, grit and stubborn will.
My granddad lent me this book and I’m glad he did.
March 9, 2018
As a long-time fan of Pierre Berton's writing, I was intrigued to read this autobiography of his mother's life in Dawson City just as the gold rush was ending. Through the eyes of a young school teacher, I enjoyed reading about the social rituals that were kept in this small town even as it teemed in unconventional life. She enjoyed parties, fancy balls and dinners with well-defined menus, social status that allowed her to mingle in the upper levels of Klondike society, lavish dresses and calling cards. On the other hand she spent several weeks living on the river with her husband and two small children, sleeping in tents and warding off dogs and bears, meeting natives, and picking berries on the hillsides. She also details the hard lives of the gold seekers and the gruesome deaths of many The reader will find descriptions of breathtakingly beautiful scenery and wildlife that make this an altogether enjoyable read. I highly recommend this book if you have any interest at all in Dawson City, the gold rush, or just Arctic themes in general.
August 21, 2025
One can easily see where Laura Berton’s son Pierre, who spent his early childhood in Dawson, got his love of history and his talent for writing. I’ve read several books about the North, but this memoire from a woman’s perspective puts a very human side on this bit of history, the fading years of the Klondike gold rush. Through her eyes, and her inestimable prose, we meet the many varied characters that made Dawson what it was, many of whom lived and died there, some tragically. We see the beauty and the wonder of the landscape and the wildlife, feel the biting cold and the long dark nights, experience the fashion, hardships, and celebrations of a unique community, experience life for a single kindergarten teacher through her life as a wife and mother of two, with all its challenges and its joys. If you’ve ever wondered about life on the Klondike, or even if you haven’t, this is a wonderfully written tale of adventure, love, and a slice of Canadian history not to be missed. Highly recommended.
March 30, 2023
If you like reading old Canadiana, than this books is for you. One of the things I found extremely interesting is how the author was present in Dawson at a time of great change. And you can see it in her description of the city and it’s places, and how the transition from gold boom to bust affected this city.
Where I found the book lacking was in its character development. Often times the author simply would describe her neighbours and friends, but not really go into detail of who they were, and as a result the reader doesn’t really bond with anyone but the author. One could make the case that this is almost a direct result of the transient nature of Dawson, and how this phenomenon effected long term residents.
Another thing I will warn readers is that due to its age, there are many racially derogatory terms used throughout the book. It is definitely a book of it’s time, but provides a first hand account of a very unique time in the Yukon’s history.
Where I found the book lacking was in its character development. Often times the author simply would describe her neighbours and friends, but not really go into detail of who they were, and as a result the reader doesn’t really bond with anyone but the author. One could make the case that this is almost a direct result of the transient nature of Dawson, and how this phenomenon effected long term residents.
Another thing I will warn readers is that due to its age, there are many racially derogatory terms used throughout the book. It is definitely a book of it’s time, but provides a first hand account of a very unique time in the Yukon’s history.
October 14, 2019
I can't say that I disliked this book, but given the time it took me to finish it, I can't say it was a rip roaring page turner. It had a steady rhythm and I was invested in learning more about the interesting people of Dawson and the great arctic lifestyle of the Yukon. There were many fascinating tales woven throughout the book of some of the famous and infamous people that happened upon the Yukon and I enjoyed the historical references from the Gold Rush to the Great Depression and how different their impacts had on this remote part of the world.
July 12, 2020
A moving memoir of a young Toronto woman who arrives in the Yukon Territory to teach school for a year or two and leaves after decades, only because her husband’s pension was too little to continue living in a faraway outpost where ordinary life was too expensive. Very interesting and detailed stories of the characters, the country and the adventures she enjoyed despite the harsh conditions. Made me want to learn more about the area without living there. Also to read more Robert Service, whose cabin was just across the street from hers.
September 22, 2019
I bought this book while traveling in Ketchikan, Alaska to get an idea of life in the Klondike at the beginning of the twentieth century after the gold rush. It is an interesting and for the most part enjoyable read but Laura Beatrice Berton never reveals her inner thoughts about her life which makes it a dispassionate personal history. Perhaps much of that reticence is due to the sensibilities of the time when people didn’t tell-all.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 86 reviews