Our Wisconsin River - Border to Border [Hardcover]

Nels Akerlund (Author), Joe Glickman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1997

Our Wisconsin River: Border to Border captures the magic of "America's hardest working river". For the past year photographer Nels Akerlund has been combing the banks of this 427 mile liquid highway by car, foot and kayak to capture the beauty of the waterway the Algonquin Indians called "Wees-Konsan", or the gathering of the waters. Akerlund's stunning color photographs are complemented by the historic black & white images to give readers a complete view of this diverse river. The text of the 112 page book by Joe Glickman explores the often tragic and humorous tales of the Indians, missionaries, explorers, lumberjacks, and the assorted collection of eccentrics that inhabited it's banks. In addition, there is the adventurous story of Akerlund, Glickman, and Nel's father Dan, who spent two weeks during the summer of '96 braving the flooded waters, headwinds, and storms, as they portaged their heavily loaded kayaks around the 26 dams that interrupt the river from it's source at Lac Vieux Desert to the mouth at the Mississippi River.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Akerlund and Glickman spent much of 1996 paddling the 427-mile long waterway known to the Algonguin as "Wees-Konsan" (gathering of the waters) collecting material for Our Wisconsin River: Border To Border. Glickman's text explores both tragic and humorous tales of the Indians, missionaries, lumberjacks, and explorers who have travelled the river and inhabited its banks. Following "The River of 1,000 Islands" from source to mouth, the authors celebrate the Wisconsin's beauty while detailing the complex and occasionally violent forces that have made the river what it is today. Akerlund's photography occasionally transcends the camera's limitations to create authentic works of pictorial art. Our Wisconsin River is a beautifully executed visual tour-de-force for the armchair traveler and the nature lover alike. -- Midwest Book Review

About the Author

Joe Glickman, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, is a 37-year-old freelance writer. His text has appeared in the New York Times, The Daily News, Newsday, The Village Voice, Outside, Men's Journal, Inside Sports, Adventure Cyclist, Runner's World, US, EcoTraveler, The Paddler, Sea Kayaker, Women's Sports & Fitness, and Brooklyn Bridge. He co-wrote (with Allen Barra) That's Not the Way It Was, a book about myths in sports. He is currently writing a book about his 107-day, 3,600-mile solo kayak trip from Montana to New York. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife Beth and daughter Willa.

Nels Akerlund's first foray into photography was an inauspicious one. At the age of two he was visiting his uncle, who had recently returned from Vietnam. The curious youngster ransacked his camera bag and exposed all his film. A 1992 graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology, Akerlund, 26, has photographed Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush, Bill Clinton, Nelson Mandela, and F.W. de Klerk. His work has appeared in two books on Rockford architect Jesse Barloga, and in One Day U.S.A. His last book Our Rock River was published in 1995. Akerlund's love of photography and the outdoors has taken him all over the world, including a month-long hitchhiking trip from Seattle to the Arctic Ocean in Alaska, to church missions in Mexico and Columbia, and to concentration camps in Poland and Germany. The youngest man to kayak the entire 2,500-mile Mississippi River, he also completed the 1,000-mile Chicago-to-New York paddle marathon, the world's longest. Currently, he is working on To the Top, a photography book on the highest peaks in each of the 50 States. He lives in Rockford, Illinois with his wife Andrea and dog Champ.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 112 pages
• Publisher: Pamacheyon Pub (April 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965508102
• ISBN-13: 978-0965508100
• Product Dimensions: 12.3 x 9.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,120,742 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)