Because of this, when James A. Michener was writing his tome, Alaska, he considered the question of how one might try to reach the Klondike while staying entirely in Canada, particularly since one of his primary goals in working out his outline for the book was to emphasize the Canadian contribution to Alaskan history. He eventually settled on a Mackenzie River route and worked out some characters he liked for the expedition. And then the entire section was cut from Alaska, partly because Michener wanted to keep the book under a thousand pages and partly because it was hard to justify having such a significant portion of the book Alaska not occurring anywhere near Alaska, particularly given the development of a chapter on the Alaskan side of the Gold Rush. Alaska was published in 1988 without the section. But Michener really liked parts of the story that he had written, and considered how he might use it. It had to be reworked and filled out in some ways, since it had been pulled out of a larger context to which it was no longer connected, but in 1989 he published it as a standalone work of less than two hundred pages, Journey: A Novel.
Journey is the next fortnightly book, of course. All-around athlete and explorer Lord Luton wants to head an expedition to the Klondike during the Gold Rush, but it aggravates him to have to leave the British Empire to do it. From London to Edmonton by boat and rail, and then the harder part of the journey begins: up through Athabasca Landing, along the rivers to Fort Norman, and then, hardest of all, along the Mackenzie River to Dawson. A difficult journey -- and one where it's uncertain that it can be done at all.
