Alaska - Not for a Woman!

by Mary Carey

In 1962 Mary Carey, newly widowed, drove the Alcan Highway alone from Texas to Alaska, where she would make herself a new life. And her life there - whether she was teaching in an eight-pupil pilot school in Talkeetna, flying Mt. McKinley with bush pilot Don Sheldon, or homesteading in the Alaskan wilderness - was one of continuous pioneering.
A crackerjack photojournalist -- she obtained exclusive eyewitness coverage of the 1964 earthquake in Kodiak, Seward, and Valdez - Ms. Carey won five first prizes in an Alaskan Press Clubs contest in 1963. She did not re-enter the contest until 1974, at which time the lady walked off with three more first prizes. Previously, in 1955, she won the National True Story Award - a $5,000 prize.
Mary Carey was the owner and proprietor of Mary's McKinley View Lodge, which she built on her homestead in 1972. There she baked sixty-four pies each day, welcomed guests, gave lectures to tourists, and somehow found time for rock hunting and writing.
Mary died suddenly at the age of 91, on June 18, 2004, at her beloved Mary's McKinley View Lodge. She left a rich legacy and a loving family from a life well-lived.

276 pages, Paperback

Published February 20, 2023

Reviews

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read several Alaska-based biographies/memoirs and this one was not my favorite, even though it was still worth reading.

The author is a teacher, journalist and lodge owner who spent a lot of time in different areas of Alaska and homesteaded outside of Talkeetna.

I think this would be particularly interesting for the author's family/friends to read. It felt fairly self-aggrandizing and brash, in my opinion, but for those close to the author I think that would be more endearing. She includes lots of information about her opinions of other people (not always very charitable), the influential/famous people she met/interviewed/hosted, her accomplishments, large portions of newspaper articles she's written, etc. It just felt a little self-important to me, even for a memoir.

I also didn't love the writing style. It was a little choppy (possibly because she was used to writing columns for the newspaper) and it sometimes felt like I had missed something in the story. It was pretty episodic, jumping around from one circumstance to another, and it was very matter of fact, although I wouldn't say it was dry.

One thing I did like is that you feel like you really got a sense of who the author was from her writing. I imagine she was including the people, places and projects that were most important to her and telling it in in her own style/tone. She certainly seemed like a can-do woman and she had the opportunity to see and do a lot of cool things. I was grateful to get this snapshot of life in Alaska.

[Greyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ms. Carey's indomitable spunk is on full display here; freshly widowed she heads up the Alcan and winds up in Talkeetna as a school-teacher. Pivots to news by following along with Don Sheldon and reporting on Denali expeditions. Many of the stories are adapted from her initial reporting which took place throughout the sixties and compiled here chronologically for ease of reading. Glacier flights, daring rescues, a "housewarming party" for the Sheldon Chalet (which must have been an all-timer), lamenting honey buckets during a polar bear hunt in (then-named) north of Barrow, and other notes from Alaska before the Parks Highway connected Talkeetna to the two main centers of commerce in the state and opened up the interior to tourists and RVs.

[Amy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple memoir in the author's natural voice. Loved it.

[Kayla Heinze]

Would've loved to see Talkeetna in the 60s/70s

[Lady Lavender · Rating 1 out of 5]

Disappointed. Expected a story, not journal entries and newspaper articles.