Caleb Reynolds
American Seafarer
Fred Roscoe was born in Humboldt County, California, in 1885 and died there of cancer in 1959. During his illness he began to write his autobiography. He lived to record the first ten years, mostly in Kodiak--less than 20 years after Alaska's purchase from Russia. There was no local government and no federal control except for customs collection and the oversight of the revenue cutters. The fur trade was still booming, though its demise was in sight, and it provided the main employment for the Native Americans and Creoles of the Kodiak and Cook's Inlet area.
In these pages, Fred Roscoe honors the history and people of Kodiak with compassionate and evocative writing.
