Tom Walker, the author of over a dozen books centered on Alaska, has lived in Alaska for almost 50 years. "Alaska has been the greatest gift of my life and I would live nowhere else." He has been a wildlife conservation officer, wilderness guide, loghome builder (shoulder surgery ended that career), wildlife and nature photographer, photo workshop leader,lecturer,and freelance writer. In his early years, "before the anesthesia of youth wore off," he briefly followed the rodeo circuit. After a stint as a horse packer in the eastern High Sierras in his natal state of California, he joined the military which eventually took him to Alaska, where he mustered out and sank roots. Walker now lives in a log house on the very edge of Denali National Park, and despite the sometimes extreme winter weather - down to -50f in winter - he finds the rural life fulfilling. "If it weren't for the long, dark and cold winter, I probably would not be a writer because I would always be out somewhere in the woods or on the tundra." He has won awards for both his photography and his volunteer work with Alaska wildlife issues. His two volume history of McKinley Park (1902-1930 era), now renamed Denali National Park, took almost 30 years to complete the interviews, research, and multiple rewrites. "A labor of love, I guess, but I wonder if I would have continued had I known what I was getting into at the outset. The fabulous, truelife stories uncovered, worthy of Robert Service and Jack London, kept me going."In January 2013, Mountaineers Books will publish, The Seventymile Kid, a biography of Harry Karstens, which includes the first "true" story of the first ascent of Mt. McKinley. "Karstens was larger than one of those Jack London characters and an honor to bring his true story to life."