Book Feature Klondikers: Dawson City’s Stanley Cup Challenge ... (by Tim Falconer)

[Theokritos]

Tim Falconer was guest on Hockey Time Machine recently. Starting at 22 minutes 50 seconds:

 

[GMR]

This sounds like something Jack London should have written about.

 

[Tim Falconer]

This sounds like something Jack London should have written about.

If he'd stayed in the Klondike longer, he might have.

 

[kaiser matias]

@Tim Falconer : I just finished the book, and have to say it was great.

Interesting that despite being some 330 pages of text, the actual Cup games only show up around page 300, and even then are over in a couple pages. I really liked the detail you put into showing the development both of hockey, and life in Dawson City. It really gives context to how such a challenge could be possible, and that it was far more than just a lark by some wealthy prospectors.

I do have one question though: you dismiss the idea that the Dawson players dog-sledded on their trek to Ottawa, saying that "mushing" was an informal term for walking. However I didn't see any citation to that, and am curious how you came to that conclusion? Obviously the use of dog sleds is a major selling point in the story, so it's interesting that you waved it away like that.

There are also two things I was confused about, but I think this was a publisher move and not yours: the use of imperial measurements throughout (miles, Fahrenheit, etc.), though I do understand that would have been the case in the time, conversion would have helped (at least for temperature; I'm familiar with imperial measurements, but have never adjusted to Fahrenheit). And the formatting of the endnotes: I come from a history background, so like my notes to have superscripted numbers for ease of access, but as I said I'll assume that was a call by ECW; either way, I'm glad they were included. The lack of an index was also unfortunate, but again I can't fault you for that.

Really stellar work, and would definitely encourage everyone here to read it.

 

[Tim Falconer]

@Tim Falconer : I just finished the book, and have to say it was great.

Interesting that despite being some 330 pages of text, the actual Cup games only show up around page 300, and even then are over in a couple pages. I really liked the detail you put into showing the development both of hockey, and life in Dawson City. It really gives context to how such a challenge could be possible, and that it was far more than just a lark by some wealthy prospectors.

I do have one question though: you dismiss the idea that the Dawson players dog-sledded on their trek to Ottawa, saying that "mushing" was an informal term for walking. However I didn't see any citation to that, and am curious how you came to that conclusion? Obviously the use of dog sleds is a major selling point in the story, so it's interesting that you waved it away like that.

There are also two things I was confused about, but I think this was a publisher move and not yours: the use of imperial measurements throughout (miles, Fahrenheit, etc.), though I do understand that would have been the case in the time, conversion would have helped (at least for temperature; I'm familiar with imperial measurements, but have never adjusted to Fahrenheit). And the formatting of the endnotes: I come from a history background, so like my notes to have superscripted numbers for ease of access, but as I said I'll assume that was a call by ECW; either way, I'm glad they were included. The lack of an index was also unfortunate, but again I can't fault you for that.

Really stellar work, and would definitely encourage everyone here to read it.

Thanks for the kind words about my book and I am really glad you enjoyed it. Thanks also for the comments and questions, which I am happy to try to answer.

I'd always believed that the team took dog sleds from Dawson to Whitehorse, but once I started working on the book, I discovered that there was no reliable source for this. None of the newspaper coverage mentioned dog sleds. Instead, the Dawson papers said the players left on foot and bicycle. In addition, I knew that there wasn't enough snow for dog sleds when they left Dawson. Some reliable sources--including Yukon Sport: An Illustrated Encyclopedia--confirmed that they hadn't taken dog sleds. I also wondered what they would have done with all those dog teams once they arrived in Whitehorse. But I also knew that many subsequent accounts talked about dog sleds so I was confused--until I read an article (cited in the endnotes) that mentioned in passing that miners referred to a long walk as a mush. Then it all made sense. You're right, though, that it would have been an even better story if they'd taken dog sleds (thought walking and cycling that far in winter is pretty wild).

The use of Fahrenheit and imperial measurements is a decision I made with my editor. Sure, it would have been easy to convert everything, but it gets messy in quotes. In addition, sticking with Fahrenheit and imperial makes it easier for American readers. But I am sorry this made things difficult for you.

As for the endnotes, Klondikers is not an academic book so I definitely did not want superscript numbers in the text, which for most readers are quite distracting. Besides, there would have been hundreds and hundreds of them. The format I used is similar to the one found in many narrative non-fiction books these days. I used the endnotes in David Grann's fabulous Killers of the Flower Moon as my model (though, admittedly, he does have page numbers for each citation). Frankly, I doubt more than a handful of readers will even look at the endnotes--just some academics and hockey historians (and some other journalists will just look to see they are there). Sorry that you are one of the readers who was interested in my sources.

Finally, the index. I did talk to my editor about this. His take was that with ebooks, indexes are increasingly redundant. I took that as an opportunity to save some money by not including an index. By the time, I thought better of that decision, it was too late in the process to change it. I now regret that the book has no index.

Thanks again for reading the book and for your thoughtful comments and questions.

 

[kaiser matias]

Thanks for the kind words about my book and I am really glad you enjoyed it. Thanks also for the comments and questions, which I am happy to try to answer.

I'd always believed that the team took dog sleds from Dawson to Whitehorse, but once I started working on the book, I discovered that there was no reliable source for this. None of the newspaper coverage mentioned dog sleds. Instead, the Dawson papers said the players left on foot and bicycle. In addition, I knew that there wasn't enough snow for dog sleds when they left Dawson. Some reliable sources--including Yukon Sport: An Illustrated Encyclopedia--confirmed that they hadn't taken dog sleds. I also wondered what they would have done with all those dog teams once they arrived in Whitehorse. But I also knew that many subsequent accounts talked about dog sleds so I was confused--until I read an article (cited in the endnotes) that mentioned in passing that miners referred to a long walk as a mush. Then it all made sense. You're right, though, that it would have been an even better story if they'd taken dog sleds (thought walking and cycling that far in winter is pretty wild).

The use of Fahrenheit and imperial measurements is a decision I made with my editor. Sure, it would have been easy to convert everything, but it gets messy in quotes. In addition, sticking with Fahrenheit and imperial makes it easier for American readers. But I am sorry this made things difficult for you.

As for the endnotes, Klondikers is not an academic book so I definitely did not want superscript numbers in the text, which for most readers are quite distracting. Besides, there would have been hundreds and hundreds of them. The format I used is similar to the one found in many narrative non-fiction books these days. I used the endnotes in David Grann's fabulous Killers of the Flower Moon as my model (though, admittedly, he does have page numbers for each citation). Frankly, I doubt more than a handful of readers will even look at the endnotes--just some academics and hockey historians (and some other journalists will just look to see they are there). Sorry that you are one of the readers who was interested in my sources.

Finally, the index. I did talk to my editor about this. His take was that with ebooks, indexes are increasingly redundant. I took that as an opportunity to save some money by not including an index. By the time, I thought better of that decision, it was too late in the process to change it. I now regret that the book has no index.

Thanks again for reading the book and for your thoughtful comments and questions.

Thanks for the detailed reply. It's neat to get an idea as to the thought process behind the decisions, and what led to them. Also interesting to see that about the dog-sleds. Guess the story was just too good that no one wanted to actually check if it was real. Wild to think the players were walking 30 miles per day for a week or so through what had to have been difficult terrain, and had no issue doing so.

 

[Tim Falconer]

Thanks for the detailed reply. It's neat to get an idea as to the thought process behind the decisions, and what led to them. Also interesting to see that about the dog-sleds. Guess the story was just too good that no one wanted to actually check if it was real. Wild to think the players were walking 30 miles per day for a week or so through what had to have been difficult terrain, and had no issue doing so.

Yes, crazy to think that walking all that way in that terrain and that weather would be better than bouncing around on a stage coach.