On a slope above a mountain lake in AlaskaÕs Brooks Range, Sam and Billie Wright built a twelve-by-twelve-foot log cabin with hand tools and named it KoviashuvikÑan Eskimo word meaning "living in the present moment with quiet joy and happiness." SamÕs account of the twenty years they spent there is both a tale of wilderness survival and an inspiring meditation on the natural world and humanityÕs relationship to it.

Inspired by Thoreau, Ilgunas set out on a Spartan path to pay off $32,000 in undergraduate student loans by scrubbing toilets and making beds in Alaska. Determined to graduate debt-free after enrolling in graduate school, he lived in an Econoline van in a campus parking lot, saving--and learning--much about the cost of education today.

Has also occasional unnumbered supplements

A richly drawn, in-depth profile of one of the world's last unspoiled wildernesses.