Where The Sun Swings North: An Alaska Adventure

Published in 1922, Where The Sun Swings North is the first novel written by Florence Barrett Willoughby, who many call Alaska’s first official author. In an effort to bring her amazing fictional tale to those interested in Alaska history, Aunt Phil’s Trunk is proud to present this work with a biography of the author in the back of the book. This tale of adventure is a fictionalized account of Barrett Willoughby’s family’s real-life experience when stranded on Middleton Island in the Gulf of Alaska for 10 months in 1896-1897 when Willoughby was 10 years old. They may have had few provisions, but they had an intense will to live. The cast of characters in this story includes a heroine and her Irish husband, a younger lady pure of heart, a drunkard and a diabolical trader who wants the Irishman’s wife for his own. Add to this group the elements of Alaska’s wild land and unpredictable weather and you’ve got a tale of adventure you won’t soon forget. It is so true to the country about which it is written that even an Alaskan can read it and enjoy it. - The Pathfinder, May 1922 It breathes the real Alaskan spirit. It is interesting and clean, like the great out-of-doors in the Northland. - Sitka Tribune, December 1922