Sitka [Paperback]

Louis L'Amour (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1997

Battle-hardened Jean LaBarge came of age on the American frontier, and is always in search of bold adventure. He'll find more than he bargains for in the rugged Alaskan territory, where he'll meet his match in Baron Zinnovy. Now he must defeat this savage, empire-hungry Russian to save his country's right to claim this frozen landscape and to win over the heart of the beautiful princess he loves! Reissue.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The story of Jean LaBarge and his northwestward trek in quest of gold and adventure is the basis of this novel. Leaving his home in the Great Swamp near the Susquehanna, LaBarge joins the ranks of fur-trappers and goes to San Francisco where he involves himself with operators, of noble Russian birth. Intrigue gets underway very quickly when he aligns himself with Count Rotcheff and his lovely royal wife to deliver wheat to the city of Sitka in Alaska, an ostensibly forbidden game. Count Zinnovy, aware that Rotcheff has been an instigator, retaliates by wounding him, thus preventing his return to St. Petersburg. At the behest of Count Rotcheff, LaBarge accompanies the beautiful Helena Rotcheff, a niece of the Czar, over icy waters and safely home. He falls in love with her, of course, but she, still married, is inaccessible. As a reward for this trip he is given an audience with the Czar to discuss the possibility of annexing Alaska to the United States. When he returns to Sitka, he is arraigned by his arch-enemy, Baron Zinnovy, but unsuccessfully so. At the crucial moment when LaBarge is to be adjudged guilty by the Russian court, a pronunciamento is delivered that Alaska is a territory of the United States and the Czar has issued a decree all prisoners and potential prisoners in Sitka were to be released as a celebration of this transaction! LaBarge is free and free also to marry Helena (since her husband has died in the interim). All ends well, but by this time the reader is rather exhausted and somewhat bored with the whole procedure. (Kirkus Reviews) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

Majestically it rose from the icy waters, the gateway to the awesome wilderness of Alaska. Even as he grew up hunting the dangerous swampland of the Susquehanna, Jean LaBarge felt drawn by the strength and beauty of that distant land. Now a battle-hardened adventurer, Jean boldly faces the dangers of Russian-owned Sitka. Those Russians who will violently protect their foothold on the continent move swiftly to destroy Jean--just as they have threatened Helena, the woman who challenged their treachery, the woman Jean desires. Fired by Helena's courage and by the call of his country, Jean is ready for a fight--to win Alaska for America. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Signet (December 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451194012
• ISBN-13: 978-0451194015
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,054,453 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"I think of myself in the oral tradition--as a troubadour, a village tale-teller, the man in the shadows of a campfire. That's the way I'd like to be remembered--as a storyteller. A good storyteller."

It is doubtful that any author could be as at home in the world re-created in his novels as Louis Dearborn L'Amour. Not only could he physically fill the boots of the rugged characters he wrote about, but he literally "walked the land my characters walk." His personal experiences as well as his lifelong devotion to historical research combined to give Mr. L'Amour the unique knowledge and understanding of people, events, and the challenge of the American frontier that became the hallmarks of his popularity.

Of French-Irish descent, Mr. L'Amour could trace his own in North America back to the early 1600s and follow their steady progression westward, "always on the frontier." As a boy growing up in Jamestown, North Dakota, he absorbed all he could about his family's frontier heritage, including the story of his great-grandfather who was scalped by Sioux warriors.

Spurred by an eager curiosity and desire to broaden his horizons, Mr. L'Amour left home at the age of fifteen and enjoyed a wide variety of jobs, including seaman, lumberjack, elephant handler, skinner of dead cattle, and miner, and was an officer in the transportation corps during World War II. During his "yondering" days he also circled the world on a freighter, sailed a dhow on the Red Sea, was shipwrecked in the West Indies and stranded in the Mojave Desert. He won fifty-one of fifty-nine fights as a professional boxer and worked as a journalist and lecturer. He was a voracious reader and collector of rare books. His personal library contained 17,000 volumes.

Mr. L'Amour "wanted to write almost from the time I could talk." After developing a widespread following for his many frontiers and adventure stories written for fiction magazines, Mr. L'Amour published his first full length novel, Hondo, in the United States in 1953. Every one of his more than 120 books is in print; there are more than 300 million copies of his books in print worldwide, making him one of the bestselling authors in modern literary history. His books have been translated into twenty languages, and more than forty-five of his novels and stories have been made into feature films and television movies.

The recipient of many great honor and awards, in 1983 Mr. L'Amour became the first novelist to ever to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by the United States Congress in honor of his life's work. In 1984 he was also awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Reagan.

Louis L'Amour died on June 10, 1988. His wife, Kathy, and their two children, Beau and Angelique, carry the L'Amour publishing tradition forward with new books written by the author during his lifetime to be published by Bantam.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Exciting and full blooded Alaskan saga, July 14, 2004

By 

F. J. Harvey "Cricket ,country music and a go... (Birmingham England) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sitka (Mass Market Paperback)

This novel is thematically a Western although its settings are non -traditional for the genre .Much of the book is set in Alaska when it was owned by Russia and was the focus of a concerted attempt by some US politicians to acquire the territory from its exploitative owners ,A key section takes place in Siberia and at the court of the Czar in St Petersburg .Throw in lenghty sections set a sea , including a rousing sea battle and you have several elements not normally found in the archetypal Western ,Yet ,withal ,a Western it is, with Cossacks standing in for Native Americans and Russian aristocrats as the despoilers and bandits .
The hero is a typical L'Amour protagonist .Jean LaBarge is rugged ,two -fisted and well capable of looking after himself in a fight both armed and unarmed .He wins the hand of a beautiful aristocratic young woman and carves out a niche for himself in the world by dint of energy and vision .
The opening four chapters are essentially a pre-amble to the main story and depict Jean as a young man growing to manhood in the swamps along the Susquehannah ,becoming friends with the bokish Rob Walker who later becomes a prominent political figure with a vision of an American Alaska .They tell of his capture by an outlaw band and how he goes on to be a world traveller ans a moderately prosperous trader .
The novel does not begin to really get going until the action shifts to Alaska ,a land which is Jean's obsession .He falls for the fair Helena , a niece of the Czar and wife to an honourable Russian administrator ,but earns ther enmity of the corrupt and ruthless Zinnovy who seeks to exercise total control over Alaska turning it into his personal fiefdom .
Before events reach their climax in an Alaskan courtroom murder has been done ,a chase has taken place acros place acros the frozen tundra of Siberia and Jean has been flung into prison and condemned to death

There is a lot of plot to get through and now and agian it feels rushed but the pace and vigour of the storytelling compensate and there is -as usual with this writer -some splendid descriptions of the natural beauty of the landscape
This is never dull and I recommend it to lovers of historical romance as well as Western readers

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A hearty blend of history, adventure, and romance., November 11, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Sitka (Paperback)

A little different from the usual western cranked out by L'Amour, this novel chronicles the opening of shipping trade routes between San Francisco and Alaska. An adventure-packed, yet romantic, look at history.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alaska is Purchased, June 23, 2008

By 

Nash Black "Troubadour" (Jamestown, KY) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Sitka (Mass Market Paperback)

Alaska, a fabled land that lures the Yankee traders north to challenge the forbidden territory of Russia where a successful run means untold wealth and failure means a horrible, but certain death.
The brazen men who plied the seas will not rest until they have gained a foothold in the frozen land.
SITKA chronicles this push from the sea to the Czar to the raising of Old Glory above the landscape. Fiction is, of course, a story, but the history is accurate and we have these men to thank for this still partially unexplored state.
SITKA was my first L'Amours and has remained one of my favorites.
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