Rockwell Kent "Wilderness" Centennial Journal

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2018 Nov. 23-24, 2018 The following  promotion appeared in Seward Gateways during November 1918 Nov. 23, 1918 – Fox Island – Resurrection Bay, Alaska – 12 Miles South of Seward.             Rainy but calm. Kent and Rockie are up early. They eat a quick breakfast hoping to get off to Seward morning. But within an hour as the tide turns, “the northwest wind whips down from the mountains and the rain falls in torrents.” The two fell a tree and start breaking it down for firewood. Kent paints some but the dismal darkness within the cabin makes it difficult. He works mostly in black and white. “Rockwell has been industrious as usual, drawing at my side,” he writes.             Kent is angry, frustrated and anxious about not being able to get to Seward to send off...

ROCKWELL KENT WILDERNESS CENTENNIAL JOURNAL 100 YEARS LATER by Doug Capra © 2018 Nov. 20-22, 2018 It’s Wednesday, Nov. 20, 1918 on Fox Island in Resurrection Bay. Rockwell Kent is frustrated. He’s been packed and ready to venture the 12 miles north to Seward in his small dory since Nov. 14 th waiting for the seas and weather to cooperate. He wants his mail, and he has a stack of letters and Christmas gifts to send to his wife and children, to friends – and to his amour, Hildegarde Hirsch in New York. He’s exasperated with the mail situation, as are Alaskans all along the gulf coast – especially with the holiday season approaching. “Tomorrow we hope to get off,” Kent writes, “although it still storms.” The running seas don’t concern as much as the chop created by the north wind. “The wind above all is to be feared here.   “The darkness also vexes him. Kent needs natural light in his small cabin to paint and draw. He put in a large south facing window and clea...