Lew Freedman is a veteran newspaper sportswriter and experienced author of more than seventy books. He spent seventeen years at the ANCHORAGE DAILY NEWS in Alaska and wrote extensively about the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. He has also written several books about the Iditarod and had stories appear in ALASKA MAGAZINE and Alaska Airlines magazine. Freedman has also worked for the CHICAGO TRIBUNE and PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER. A frequent traveler to Alaska, Freedman believes the Iditarod is one of the world’s great sporting events and only wishes the dogs could talk so he could better write their story. www.LewFreedmanBooks.com Jon Van Zyle has been the official artist of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race for more than thirty years and has run the race twice. Jon’s art has garnered him numerous honors, and his prints, posters, and lithographs are prized by collectors. Jon and his wife live in Alaska, where they maintain a dog team of Siberian huskies. www.jonvanzyle.com
"""All of the stories collected here are personal accounts by participants in the Iditarod dog-sled contest, as reported by Lew Freedman, former reporter for the . There are 28 chapters, each one a kind of summary of a musher's personal experience running the Iditarod. The cross-section includes mostly contest winners and top competitors, but also some of the more colorful characters who participate, such as Hobo Jim, a country singer who wrote a popular song about the Iditarod; Jon Van Zyle, who makes paintings of dogs and mushers; Aaron Burmeister, who grew up in Nome and for whom the Iditarod has been a continual part of life; second generation musher Cim Smyth; Newto Marshall, a competitor from Jamaica; and DeeDee Jonrowe, a woman who has finished second twice."" —Eithne O'Leyne, ProtoView"