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Book Cover for: Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod, Gary Paulsen

Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod

Gary Paulsen

Winterdance is an unforgettable account of Gary Paulsen's most ambitious quest: to know a world beyond his knowing, to train for and run the Iditarod. Fueled by an all-consuming passion for running dogs, Paulsen entered the grueling 1,180-mile race across Alaska in dangerous ignorance and with fierce determination. For seventeen days, Paulsen and his team of fifteen dogs ran through breathtaking and treacherous Arctic terrain. They crossed the barren, moonlike landscape of the Alaskan interior and witnessed sunrises that cast a golden blaze over the vast waters of the Bering Sea. They endured blinding wind, snowstorms, frostbite, dogfights, moose attacks, sleeplessness, hallucinations - and the relentless push to go on. He crossed the finish line, but it wasn't enough: Paulsen was obsessed and wanted to race again. Though the dangers of the Iditarod were legion, more frightening still was the knowledge that he could not stop racing dogs of his own free will.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Mariner Books
  • Publish Date: Feb 17th, 1995
  • Pages: 272
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 8.90in - 5.90in - 1.10in - 0.72lb
  • EAN: 9780156001458
  • Recommended age: 12-17
  • Categories: Winter Sports - GeneralAnimal Sports - Dog RacingDogs - General

About the Author

Paulsen, Gary: - "

GARY PAULSEN (1939 - 2021) wrote nearly two hundred books for young people, including the Newbery Honor Books Hatchet, Dogsong, and The Winter Room.

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Praise for this book

"There are only a handful of indispensable dog books...Winterdance belongs among [those] classics...It is hard to find a page in this laconic book without an insight, hard to find a word that could be cut without loss...Winterdance is beautiful and is very funny and it's about and dogs and their souls."--Washington Post "Winterdance will be around long after most outdoor adventure books have been forgotten. What could have been an ordinary journal becomes instead a revelation." -Minneapolis/St. Paul Star-Tribune "In the tradition of Jack London...[Paulsen's] prose is spare and physical; at its best, it has the fluid simplicity of Hemingway...What's most moving is his behavior at the end of the race; 'I didn't want to go in, ' he says. Armchair travelers will understand." -Booklist "A breathtaking, heart-stopping, roller coaster ride that depicts the brutal reality of the Iditarod, the magnificent beauty of Alaska, and the unique, if not surreal, relationship that develops between man and dog."--Nevada Weekly --