Wilderness

ROCKWELL KENT (1872-1971) was one of America's most celebrated graphic artists. Although he is perhaps best known for his illustrations for The Complete Works of William Shakespeare and Moby Dick, his artwork appeared everywhere at the height of his career. Kent also created the "random house" that, despite revision throughout the years, has been the colophon of that company since its inception in 1928. Kent's other travel books include N by E, Wilderness, and Voyaging, all reissued by Wesleyan University Press, a tribute to their perennial appeal. DOUG CAPRA came to Alaska in 1971 and taught school in the Aleutian Islands, in Seward, and at Kenai Peninsula College. He retired after twenty-four years, and then spent seventeen years as a seasonal and permanent ranger at Kenai Fjords National Park. Capra has served on the board of the Alaska Historical Society and written extensively about Alaska history, including three books, several forewords, and many articles about Rockwell Kent published in The Kent Collector. He has spent many years wandering Fox Island and Resurrection Bay to learn more about Kent's experience. Capra's book, The Spaces Between: Stories from the Kenai Mountains to the Kenai Fjords, includes two chapters about Kent. He has written and directed two plays, And Now the World Again, about Rockwell Kent; and Into Alaska a Woman Came, about a pioneer woman called Alaska Nellie. He has written the forewords for two of Kent's books published by the Wesleyan University Press—Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska; and Northern Christmas. He lives in Seward, only twelve miles from Fox Island, and occasionally works as a naturalist aboard cruise ships.