<DIV><DIV>In 1897, a 21-year-old unemployed Californian named Jack London borrowed funds so he could make his fortune in the Klondike. His life prior to the gold rush had been a story of toil and lean days. He knew how to pitch a tent, start a fire with minimal effort and how to go without either a fire or a blanket if circumstances required. He had lived in close quarters with sailors before the mast, tramps on the road and even convicts in jail. <br>Though London set sail for the Klondike to accumulate gold rather than write about it, in the back of his mind lurked a resolve to become a writer. Everywhere he wandered, his alert intellect absorbed the experiences and observations he would later organize into mesmerizing stories. His masterpieces about the gold rush--"The Call of the Wild" and "White Fang"--remain to this day the finest record of the atmosphere, the overlay of the cold, the romance and the stark nature of survival in the wilderness. <br>"Sailor on Snowshoes" is at once a regional history, page-turning mystery and Yukon yarn--a ramble through Jack London's gold rush to find and preserve its tangible relics. In particular, it is the story of the search for a holy grail--the Yukon bush cabin in which London wrote his name--expertly narrated by northern historian and journalist Dick North, for whom an idle conversation in a saloon turned into a life's work. Through his painstaking research and keen intellect, North offers new insight into London as a young man and the far-off land that inspired his fame.</DIV>