Reviews for Pilgrimage from Darkness: Nuremberg to Jerusalem

The average rating for Pilgrimage from Darkness: Nuremberg to Jerusalem based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-01-10 00:00:00 Rodrigo Golla The Bear Man of Admiralty Island gives a biography of Allen Hasselborg, who lived alone at his homestead in Mole Harbor on Admiralty Island for most of his life. He began his life in Alaska as a miner, and then became a hunter for scientific expeditions. However, although he shot many bears himself, he ended up not allowing people to hunt bears in Mole Harbor, even though his homestead was only 135 acres near Mole River and only a very small fraction of Mole Harbor. He was incredibly tough, amazingly well self-educated and quite self-sufficient. The author, John R. Howe, tries his best to convey a sense of what Allen Hasselborg was like. This is a struggle because Allen Hasselborg was dead before the book was written, and he had an unusual personality. It is hard to tell if he was a likeable curmudgeon or a truly unpleasant man. He must, however, have been incredibly strong physically and mentally. The work and the hiking he did is unimaginable, not to mention his boat trips, sometimes self-powered, and his rough camping. Howe worked with one of Allen Hasselborg's sisters to present the story of Hasselborg's childhood and Howe used letters and personal recollections of Hasselborg's friends and relatives to explain his life. There is a lack of feeling for who Hasselborg really was, but the author did the best he could to overcome this. The book does tell you the history of that time period at that one place on Admiralty Island. It also includes some background on scientific exploration and attitudes about bear control and conservation in the early 1900's. Without this book, I wouldn't have known about the movement to eliminate bears on Admiralty Island and the struggle to protect them. It is certainly a worthwhile book to read if you are interested in Admiralty Island.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-12-15 00:00:00 Gary Hill An interesting and well-written biography. There's a lot of bear killing, which was difficult for me to get through, but there's also a conservationist message that I appreciated. I also appreciated the detailed examination of Hasselborg's skills while living in cooperation with the land, and his independent spirit.