Spirit of the Wind: The Story of George Attla, Alaska's Legendary Sled Dog Sprint Champ | 
 enlarge | Author: Lew Freedman
Publisher: Epicenter Press
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
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Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 715500
Format: Illustrated
Media: Paperback
Pages: 224
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.6
ISBN: 0945397933
Dewey Decimal Number: 796
EAN: 9780945397939
ASIN: 0945397933
Publication Date: February 2001
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Condition: Brand new Book, ALL days Low Price !
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Product Description
This is the biography of an extraordinary man whose uncommon strength, agility, speed, and endurance are the stuff of champions. It tells the fascinating story of how he and his sled dogs became champion sprint racers.
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| Customer Reviews:
 A Legend in Mid-Life July 21, 2005
Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
George Attla was no more than a name to me before I picked up SPIRIT IN THE WIND: THE STORY OF GEORGE ATTLA. The cover said he was Alaska's legendary sled dog sprint champ. Whuh? I scoffed, thinking "legendary" was a word that is overused nowadays and should be reserved for people like Helen of Troy or George Washington. However, one quick peek through the contents of this book made me think that for once, Lew Freedman is not overstating things, for George Attla has indeed all the attributes of a legendary figure. Did you ever read Joseph Campbell's HERO OF A THOUSAND FACES? That will come to mind when you sit down with a hot cup of cocoa and a copy of SPIRIT OF THE WIND. For Attla is to ordinary mushers what Margot Fonteyn is to ballerinas--the gold standard to which all others have to kneel down.
He is good with dogs, and Freedman spends a lot of time detailing the extraordinary bonds set up by a trainer like Attla with some very special beasts. Freedman ascribes some of his magic to his First Peoples ancestry, for he is an Alaskan Indian with a kind of "horse whispering" background and a crippling childhood disease, one that would bring tears to your eyes, and when he conquers it the Northern Lights seem to glow a little brighter. You'll be wiping away the tears with a chamois.
He has achieved too many feats to mention, and nine gold medals. When he left school, it was with a first grade education--no, I guess he made it into second grade. At the end of our lives when we approach the Pearly Gates, St Peter will ask us what we did for other people while we were alive, and George Attla will shake his noble head and say, "I did it for the dogs."
 A legendary man, but a trivial book February 21, 2004
Terri Massa (Fairbanks, AK USA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Without a doubt one of the most poorly written books that I have every read. The author normally writes newspaper articles and it's obvious. Each chapter is written like a short article off the main page which results in a shallow read. There is no transition between chapters and much of the information in one chapter is repeated in subsequent chapters. It takes talent to make such a fascinating life such an incredible bore.
Interesting and "friendly" biography of a great Alaskan February 18, 2004
lordhoot (Anchorage, Alaska USA)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This biography on George Attla proves to be interesting and well written. The book tells the story of this great Alaskan musher in an easy to read and entertaining prose.However, as information goes, the book suffered because while the author tells us so much about Attla's accomplishments, the book doesn't go into the man itself. Its a very friendly biography written by the author who does his best not to paint any negative aspects of George Attla. A good example would the short time Mr. Attla spent in jail up in Fairbanks for reason Mr. Freedman should have known but did not go into. Biography is a two edge sword. If you are going to write about a man, his greatness and his flaws must be presented. So far, the author seem to be high with praises only. How will we supposed to know who George Attla is without his weaknesses as well. Because of this, I can only considered this book as "half biography" of George Attla, entertaining reading but pretty lightweight material.
 The inspiring biography of an unusual man September 12, 2001
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
It was 1958 when a twenty-four-year-old George Attla limped to the staring line of the Fur Rendezvous World Championships sled dog race in Anchorage, Alaska with a team of dogs borrowed from family and friends in his hometown of Huslia, Alaska. Three days later he won with a record-setting victory -- the first of many championships won by the man who would become the greatest spring dog "musher" of all time. An athabascan Indian from a tiny Koyukuk River village, Attla was diagnosed with crippling bone tuberculosis as a child, a disability that resulted in a permanently fused knee. Unable to work with his father on the family trap line (as Attla boys were expected to do), George began work training the family pups as a young boy. The dogs became his life, and "mushing" his life's work. Spirit Of The Wind: The Story Of Alaska's George Attla, Legendary Sled Dog Spring Champ is the inspiring biography of an unusual man who overcame all manner of obstacles and impediments to fulfill his life's dream, and in doing so, became a true and authentic champion!
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