Rockwell Kent "Wilderness" Centennial Journal

LINKS TO SPECIFIC CHAPTERS IN THIS BOOK On August 28, 2020 I presented a lecture in Seward focused on the 100th anniversary of the publication of Rockwell Kent's Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska , and the exhibit of the Alaska paintings. These events took place in March 1920. During the lecture I skimmed through much background information contained in the chapters below. The links below take you in order to the entries about the topics listed.  Kent arrived in Seward with his 8-year-old son, Rockie, on Aug. 24, 1918. The next day they discovered Fox Island, met Lars Matt Olson the old fox farmer and rancher there, and decided to settle at that spot. On Aug. 26-27 they stayed in Seward making preparations to settle on the island. On Aug. 28, they moved to Fox Island. The two adventurers made a few more quick trips back and forth during the next few days to get settled, but Kent marked Aug. 28 as the day he began his Alaska adventure on Fox Island. I will continue

  People have asked me where they can get a copy of the new Chinese edition of Rockwell Kent's Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska -- with my Forewords. It now available on amazon at this link .

  NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Historic Preservation Commission and the Resurrection Bay Historical Society will be hosting a Founder’s Day Celebration with a presentation on Rockwell Kent by Doug Capra: Friday, August 28, 2020 from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m. Founder’s Day Celebration Seward Community Library & Museum 239 Sixth Avenue, Seward, Alaska Friday, August 28, 2020 at 3:30 p.m. Rockwell Kent Presentation by Doug Capra Branson Pavilion at Waterfront Park Ballaine Blvd., Seward, Alaska All public is invited to attend. PHOTOS -- NORTH WIND, 1918-19 by Rockwell Kent -- Various editions of Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska by Rockwell Kent. -- Recently published Chinese language edition of Wilderness with two forewords by Doug Capra.

    NEW CHINESE EDITION OF ROCKWELL KENT'S  WILDERNESS:  A JOURNAL OF QUIET ADVENTURE IN ALAKSA Today (Aug. 17, 2020) at about 3:30 p.m. a UPS truck drove up to my house and dropped off a box of books that had traveled all the way from Beijing, China. The box held several copies of a new Chinese edition of Rockwell Kent's "Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska." This Chinese edition has two forewords I've written: the first back in 1995 for the Wesleyan University Press edition of which this is a reprint, and a second foreword I wrote for this new edition.   Back in the summer of 2019 I received some emails from a professor at a university in Beijing who was translating “Wilderness” into Chinese. He had many questions about slang, idioms and other cultural issues that are difficult to transfer from one language to another. I provided some answers and I was asked to write a new foreword to accompany my earlier one.   It took me a while to find my forew

 A DREAMER'S SEARCH  A Short Film About Rockwell Kent in Alaska I'm working with filmmaker Eric Downs as an advisor on this short film about Rockwell Kent on Fox Island in Resurrection Bay. Follow this link  for more information about this project.

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2020 100 Years Ago This Month March 18, 2020 It was 100 years ago this month -- March of 1920 -- that Rockwell Kent began his rise to fame. This is when the New York exhibit of is Alaska paintings combined with the publication of his first book, Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure in Alaska . If you haven't already read this portion of the website, this might be a good time to do so. Begin with the link below and work you way along this multipart series. https://rockwellkentjournal.blogspot.com/2019/07/part-1-july-21-24-wilderness-alaska.html In a few days I'll continue the series about Olga and her family, the Drexel-Dahlgrens.

 ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2020 Part 2: Olga Drexel Dahlgren and her Family March 13, 2020 INTRODUCTION This journey into Olga Drexel Dahlgren and her family has several purposes. There is a connection between Olga and Rockwell Kent that involves his second wife, Frances, and perhaps even his first wife, Kathleen. I will cover this in the last entry of this series. On our way there, I want to introduce the family as portrayed by press coverage. To a significant extent, this will be a skewed perspective, as is all media coverage. I don’t have access to letters and diaries that would certainly present a more nuanced narrative. The Drexels, the Dahlgrens, and the Drexel-Dahlgrens represent a prominent, visible, wealthy, Roman Catholic family – a combination of old and new wealth – that emerged after the American Civil War during what has been called the Gilded Age. The Drexel-Dahlgren children reached maturity during a pe

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER Part I – Olga Drexel Dahlgren and the Bachelor Girls by Doug Capra © 2020 March 9, 2020 ABOVE – Olga Drexel Dahlgren, 1926. Photo by Edward Steichen. Photo Source. BELOW – From the March 20, 1898 Chicago Tribune. JUST ABOUT A GENERATION The difference between an “old maid” and a “bachelor girl,” dear nephew, is  just about a generation.          March 25, 1921 Baltimore Evening Sun The bachelor girl of the present day…earns a good salary, is financially independent and is respected by all. No stigma attaches to her state of single blessedness. I’m rather inclined to think that many of the married women regard her with envious eyes and wish they had her money and her freedom!          Nov. 12, 1914 in the Philadelphia Evening Public Ledger While researching Rockwell Kent’s life during the mid-1920’s, I stumbled upon two interesting topics – a person, and a change in social mores

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2018 Working Toward Rockwell Kent’s 1935 Visit To Alaska Feb. 24, 2019 ABOVE – Rockwell and Kathleen Kent’s children in Antibes,France , circa 1923, From right: Rockie, Kathleen, Clara, Barbara, Gordon. After returning from his Tierra del Fuego journey, Rockwell sent Kathleen and the children off to France while he retreated to his farm at Arlington, Vermont to work on his second book and complete his new paintings. BELOW – Rockwell and Kathleen Kent’s children at Nice, France circa 1923. From left: Kathleen, Clara, Barbara, Gordon.  They are dressed for and have participated in the famous Nice Carnival of Flowers.   Rockie may have been at times back in the states with his father. My original intent was to move quickly from about 1922-23 to 1935 when Rockwell Kent returned to Alaska under a grant from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to paint a mural for the Post