Published in 1922, Where The Sun Swings North is the first novel written by Florence Barrett Willoughby, who many call Alaska’s first official author.

This tale of adventure is a fictionalized account of her family’s real-life experience when stranded on Middleton Island in the Gulf of Alaska for 10 months in 1896-1897 when Willoughby was 10 years old. They may have had few provisions, but they had an intense will to live.

The cast of characters in this story includes a heroine and her Irish husband, a younger lady pure of heart, a drunkard and a diabolical trader who wants the Irishman’s wife for his own. Add to this group the elements of Alaska’s wildland and unpredictable weather and you’ve got a tale of adventure you won’t soon forget.

Reviews

“It is so true to the country about which it is written that even an Alaskan can read it and enjoy it.” – The Pathfinder, May 1922

“It breathes the real Alaskan spirit. It is interesting and clean, like the great out-of-doors in the Northland.” – Sitka Tribune, December 1922