The Best Books About Yukon and the Klondike

Whether you're planning a trip north or travelling from your armchair, the right books will put you in the middle of the Klondike — and introduce you to the writers who have called this territory home. Here are the essentials, from gold rush classics to local Yukon authors and the North's own field guides. ## The Klondike classics - ***Klondike: The Last Great Gold Rush, 1896–1899* by Pierre Berton.** The definitive popular history of the rush, and one of the great works of Canadian non-fiction. Berton wrote it with unusual authority: he was **born in Whitehorse in 1920 and raised in Dawson City**, where his family lived across the street from Robert Service. No one has told the story better. - ***The Call of the Wild* and *White Fang* by Jack London.** The novels that gave the Klondike to the world. London's shorter Yukon stories — especially *To Build a Fire* — are often even better. See our piece on [Jack London in the Klondike](/blog/jack-london-klondike-yukon). - **The collected poems of Robert Service.** *Songs of a Sourdough* (1907, published in the U.S. as *The Spell of the Yukon*) made the "Bard of the Yukon" famous. *The Cremation of Sam McGee* and *The Shooting of Dan McGrew* are still recited in Dawson today. - ***The Klondike Stampede* by Tappan Adney.** A journalist sent north in 1897, Adney produced one of the finest eyewitness accounts of the rush — a true primary source, and freely available through the Internet Archive. - ***Gold Diggers: Striking It Rich in the Klondike* by Charlotte Gray.** A vivid, character-driven modern history that follows six real stampeders (Jack London among them) through the rush. ## Local Yukon authors The Yukon has long punched above its weight in writing, and Dawson City in particular has a literary heritage out of all proportion to its size. - **Dick North.** A journalist who made Dawson his home and served as curator of the Jack London cabin, North wrote gripping northern histories including ***The Mad Trapper of Rat River*** — the definitive account of the 1932 manhunt for Albert Johnson — and ***The Lost Patrol***, about the [Mounted Police](/blog/nwmp-making-of-yukon) who died on the winter trail between Dawson and Fort McPherson. - **Pierre Berton**, as above, remains the Yukon's most famous literary son; **Berton House** in Dawson now hosts a national writers' residency. Dawson's "Writers' Block," between Berton House, the Robert Service cabin, and Jack London's cabin, is worth a walk on any visit — see the [Dawson City travel guide](/blog/dawson-city-48-hours). ## The North's own field guides If your interest runs to the land itself, two kinds of books earn their place in a Yukon pack: - ***The Boreal Herbal: Wild Food and Medicine Plants of the North* by Beverley Gray.** A Yukon herbalist based in Whitehorse, Gray spent decades cataloguing the wild plants of the boreal forest. Her award-winning, bestselling guide is the standout regional reference for foraging and northern plant medicine; she also runs the Aroma Borealis herb shop in Whitehorse ([beverleygray.com](https://beverleygray.com/)). - **A good regional plant field guide.** A boreal-forest plant identification guide is invaluable for putting names to what you see along the trails; ask at [Yukon Books](https://www.yukonbooks.com/) in Whitehorse, the territory's own bookshop, for the current best edition. ## Where to buy Support the local trade if you can. **Yukon Books** in Whitehorse, and the gift shops at the Dawson City Museum and the Dänojà Zho Cultural Centre, all carry strong selections of northern titles — including books by [Tr'ondëk Hwëch'in](/blog/trondk-hwechin-original-people-klondike) and other First Nations authors. --- ## See Also on TheKlondike.net - [Jack London in the Klondike](/blog/jack-london-klondike-yukon) — the winter that made him famous - [The Klondike Gold Rush: How It Started and Why It Changed Everything](/blog/klondike-gold-rush-how-it-started) - [Tracing Family Roots to the Gold Rush](/blog/tracing-family-roots-gold-rush) — turning reading into research - [Dawson City Travel Guide](/blog/dawson-city-48-hours) — Robert Service's and Jack London's cabins are both preserved there