Alaska: Not for a Woman

by M.V. Carey

Written by the famous Alaskan pioneer homesteader and Alaska's first woman senator.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

About the author

Also known as Mary V. Carey
Personal: Born May 19, 1925, in New Brighton, Cheshire (now Merseyside), England; brought to the United States in 1925, naturalized citizen in 1955; daughter of John Cornelius (an engineer) and Mary Alice (Hughes) Carey. Home address in 1993 was 3748 Birch St., Ventura, CA.

Ms Carey passed away in 1994.

Education: College of Mount St. Vincent, B.S., 1946.

Religion: Roman Catholic

Career: Coronet, New York City, editorial associate, 1948 - 55; Walt Disney Productions, Burbank, CA, assistant editor of publications, 1955 - 69; free-lance writer 1969 - 1994.

Member: PEN; Mystery Writers of America; Society of Children's Book Writers; Women in Communications.

Awards, Honors: Southern California Council on Literature for Children and Young People Award, 1986, for "A Place for Allie".

Hobbies and Interests: Walking on the beach.

Writings:
Novelizations of Walt Disney Motion Pictures:
(With George Sherman) WD's "Babes in Toyland" Golden Press, 1961.
WD's "The Sword in the Stone" Whitman, 1963.
The Story of Walt Disney's Motion Picture "Mary Poppins" Whitman, 1964.
WD's "The Misadventures of Merlin Jones" Whitman, 1964.
WD's "Donald Duck and the Lost Mesa Ranch" Whitman, 1966.
The Story of WD's Motion Picture "Jungle Book" Whitman, 1967.
The Story of WD's Motion Picture "Blackbeard's Ghost" Whitman, 1968.
"Mrs. Brisby's Important Package" (adapted from film "The Secret of NIMH), Golden Press, 1982.

Juveniles:
"Raggedy Ann and the Glad and Sad Day", Golden Press, 1972.
"Little Lulu and the Birthday Surprise, Whitman, 1973.
"The Tawny, Scrawny Lio and the Clever Monkey" Golden Press, 1974.
"Alonzo Purr, the Seagoing Cat", Western Pub., 1974.
"The Owl Who Loved Sunshine", Golden Press, 1977.
"The Gremlin's Storybook", Golden Press, 1984.

The Three Investigators Mystery Series (Random House):
"The Mystery of the:
#15 Flaming Footprints, 1971.
#17 Singing Serpent, 1972.
#20 Monster Mountain, 1973.
#21 The Secret of the Haunted Mirror, 1974.
#23 Invisible Dog, 1975.
#24 Death Trap Mine, 1976.
#27 Magic Circle, 1978.
#29 Sinister Scarecrow, 1979.
#31 Scar-Faced Beggar, 1981.
#32 Blazing Cliffs, 1981.
#34 Wandering Cave Man, 1982.
#36 Missing Mermaid, 1984.
#39 Trail of Terror, 1984.
#41 Creep-Show Crooks, 1985.
#43 Cranky Collector, 1987
FYF#8 The Case of the Savage Statue, 1987.

Other:
(Editor) Jane Black, "The Indispensables", Hewitt House, 1971.
"Step-by-step Candlemaking", Golden Press, 1972.
"Step-by-step Winemaking", Golden Press, 1973.
"Love Is Forever" (collection of prose and poetry), C.R. Gibson, 1975.
(With George Sherman) "A Compendium of Bunk", C.C. Thomas, 1976.
(Editor) "Grandmothers Are Very Special People", C.R. Gibson, 1977.
"A Place for Allie" (young adult novel), Dodd, 1985.

Sidelights: Carey told Contemporary Authors: "I began writing late; my first articles and stories were published after I was thirty, and I was motivated by money. Money is not a bad motivation. The need to eat keeps us from laziness, and the fact that someone is willing to pay to read what we write assures us that we have indeed written."

"I think that writing should be honest and simple, and it should say something about what it means to be a person. When God is good to us, we write in such a way that the act of reading becomes a pleasure to those who buy our books. This experience doesn't happen all the time, but when it does it is at least as heady as winning the Irish sweepstakes. It makes mere competence seem dull. It is probably also what makes writing a compulsive occupation; some of us are uncomfortable when we are away from our typewriters for any length of time."

"My lifelong ambition, aside from writing, is to finish exploring the American West. This should keep me busy for at least another thirty years, since there is a

Reviews

[Lisa]

Not a well-written book, but absolutely fascinating.

[Kathy]

Quotable:

We bury our dead, but not their ideals.

What makes a great man great? I sometimes believe that a prime prerequisite is humanity to man - a quality which, if lost, may well lead to decline.

[Yvonne Leutwyler]

This is an autobiography of a remarkable woman who recently passed away at old age. After three turbulent marriages Mary Carey came to Talkeetna, Alaska, to teach grade school in the little red schoolhouse. Soon she embarked on many adventures in her new home, at the time they were deemed inapropriate for women, even in Alaska. I guess we contemporary Alaska gals owe her some respect!

[Annie]

Finally got the chance to read this book, it only took me a year! Like probably everyone else here on Goodreads, I came across this book by actually visiting Mary's McKinley View Lodge (and eating there numerous times....their veggie burgers were divine, especially after long days of hiking!) and meeting her daughter. Mary Carey was one interesting woman; this book, unfortunately, doesn't really do a good job of telling you about her life. It has its moments, especially when she mentions some of the climbers she interviewed or the natural disasters she covered, or how difficult it was to get that highway finished (and therefore open up Denali more for people like me), but most of the book was honestly spent name dropping and talking about silly village stuff from back when Talkeetna was less of a tourist trap and more of a, well, village. Can't say I'm really interested in fundraisers to buy new pipe organs for churches.

Still, this book offers a worthwhile look into a small piece of Alaskan history, and if you ever make it up to that corner of the world, stop at the lodge and eat a veggie burger for me.

[Dennylou]

The ratings for this book should all be 5 stars. It is a great book about Mary Carey's initial adventure in Alaska mostly with Don Sheldon. This books is not intended to be solely about Mary Carey. I believe that it is about her adventures which heavily involved Don Sheldon. She also thought that he deserved to have his story told. I absolutely loved the book and intend to read as many of her other 15 books. I too leaned about this book from a recent trip to Alaska to Talkeetna, Denali and much more. Having read the book soon after my trip extended my experience like no other story could have. While we did not fly over Denali or land on a glacier in the area because of technical issues. We did fly in a helicopter and a bush plane in other locations. We landed on a glacier, took boat trips and such. One of my favorite parts was stopping at Mary Carey's lodge, meeting her daughter and reading her book. She was a wonderful writing. I only hope that I am half the writer she is.

[Melissa]

If you want a peek into Alaska and specifically into Denali and mountain climbing in the early days, this is the book for you! It is not an easy read because the style is definitely more newspaper/column– writer style than novel, but if you are able to read it in small chunks and digest it, you will enjoy it thoroughly. One of the writer’s goals was to make sure that everyone who was involved in these early years of statehood got credit where credit was due. Therefore, you will run across a plethora of names of early movers and shakers in Alaskan history. That can be a little bit tedious, but it was important to the author and therefore, part of the richness of this book. The author’s sense of humor was apparent throughout the book and her adventures were epic!

[Carolinamom]

Mary Carey lived a fascinating life and it was obvious she was a newspaper reporter because that was how she wrote. Often times, she quoted articles she had written to tell her story. But writing a book is a totally different type of task. Sometimes she threw in details that didn't belong with the story at the moment and it was distracting. The story in its entirety didn't always fit together smoothly. But I admired her spirit, determination, love for Mt. McKinley (as it was called then) and all of Alaska's people.

[Daria Huxley]

I got this book last year while visiting Alaska. Read it before my second trip out there and it was super helpful to learn about some bits of history of Talkeetna and Denali.

The book is filled with amazing adventure stories and author’s experiences are remarkable! You get to know Alaska and the wonderful spirit of its pioneers.

The language of the book is a little too factual lacking metaphors and poetic parallels to my taste, but overall the book was highly enjoyable to read.

[Cathie]

I picked this up when we were in Alaska, since we stopped at Talkeetna and stayed 2 nights at the Princess Mt McKinley Lodge, just a couple of miles from Mary Carey's homestead and lodge. It was amusing to hear the stories about early homesteading, but the author included long quotes from many of her newspaper articles - and after a while all the names ran together.

[Valerie Harless-jividen]

I hadn’t heard of Mary Carey until I stopped at her store in Alaska while on my way to Denali. As I was reading, I could see through her eyes. Great story of a remarkable woman. Her grand-niece was working in the gift shop that day and autographed my book.

[Michelle]

I love the story and the way it was written. However the book itself had a couple words that were clearly miss typed and the glue in the binding didn’t last. The book started coming apart after the first few chapters.

[Angie Smith]

I really enjoyed the author’s tenacious perspective on life. This book reminded me there have been strong women alive in all periods of time. I love her strong spirit to advocate for progress in Alaska.

[Janice]

Mary Carey’s love for Alaska and the people who live there comes across clearly, especially her fascination with Denali. Having recently visited her lodge and eaten pie there, this memoir was special in giving a view of what life was like before the roads were in to Denali national park.

[Nancy J. Gilbert]

Bought this on a trip to Alaska. The author's daughter, who is an author as well, autographed it. Thrilling, fascinating biography. Mary Carey was an adventure enthusiast and loved Alaska.

[Linda]

An interesting read from an amazing woman ahead of her time. Her writing style is a bit dated and stilted but the subject matter in the main is very interesting.

[Shannon]

Loved this book. It was a gift from Anny, and it tied in some of my favorite types of stories: aviation, mountaineering, and written by an adventurous woman.

[Bryson Winslow]

Not well written, good anyways