Jans, Nick 1955–

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Jans, Nick 1955–

PERSONAL: Born 1955. Education: Colby College, degree, 1977.

ADDRESSES: Agent—c/o Author Mail, Penguin, 375 Hudson St., New York, NY 10014.

CAREER: Has worked as a teacher in AK; journalist.

WRITINGS:

The Last Light Breaking: Living among Alaska's Inupiat Eskimos, Alaska Northwest Books (Anchorage, AK), 1993.

A Place Beyond: Finding Home in Arctic Alaska, Alaska Northwest Books (Anchorage, AK), 1996.

Tracks of the Unseen: Meditations on Alaska Wildlife, Landscape, and Photography, Fulcrum Publishers (Golden, CO), 2000.

(Author of text) Art Wolfe, Alaska (photographs), Sasquatch Books (Seattle, WA), 2000.

Grizzly Maze: Timothy Treadwell's Fatal Obsession with Alaskan Bears, Penguin Group (New York, NY), 2005.

Also contributor to periodicals, including Rolling Stone, Backpacker, and Christian Science Monitor. Contributing editor, Alaska magazine; member of board of editorial contributors, USA Today.

SIDELIGHTS: A well-known contributor to Alaska magazine, Nick Jans has a long and intimate familiarity with the state. In The Last Light Breaking: Living among Alaska's Inupiat Eskimos he recounts his years as a teacher in the Alaskan bush. He followed this work with A Place Beyond: Finding Home in Arctic Alaska, a collection of essays on his experiences as a hunter and nature photographer "that honor their subject without being overwhelmed by it," according to Booklist reviewer Patricia Monaghan. Tracks of the Unseen: Meditations on Alaska Wildlife, Landscape, and Photography further expounds on Jans' treks through over fifty thousand miles of wilderness, but it also provides an insightful look at the other Alaska of tourist sites and modern technology. "Read a couple of essays each day, and you may find yourself booking passage north," predicted Library Journal contributor Kimberly Bateman. "Many are drawn to the North," noted Monaghan, "but few are chosen by it. Jans is one of those chosen."

In a departure from his previous works, Jans' Grizzly Maze: Timothy Treadwell's Fatal Obsession with Alaskan Bears tells the story of a nature lover and activist whose devotion to Alaskan wildlife cost him his life. Born in New York City as Timothy Dexter, Treadwell went through a series of reinvented personae before emerging as a champion of Alaska's grizzlies. He spent his summers living among the bears, learning their ways, and trying to gain their acceptance. In doing so, he violated traditional, commonsense taboos against such things as petting the bears or getting too close to a mother and her cubs. His methods earned him enormous publicity as an environmentalist hero and gave him a platform to champion the protection of grizzlies. However, on his fourteenth summer in Alaska, he and his girlfriend paid the price for such close proximity when they were mauled to death, and partially eaten, by two enraged grizzlies.

It is a complicated story, and "Jans does an admirable job sorting through Treadwell's mythology, applying a healthy dose of skepticism without bludgeoning him with judgment," according to Seattle Weekly contributor John Dicker. Through interviews with Treadwell's closest friends and colleagues, he provides a multifaceted look at a man often given to self-invention and reinvention but with a genuine love of the Alaska that Jans knows so well. "He tackles a broader issue as well: our evolving relationship with nature and the folly of this kind of attempt at interspecies interaction," explained a Publishers Weekly reviewer. These complexities do not prevent the vivid retelling a dramatic life. As Capital City Weekly contributor Terri Schlichenmeyer noted, "Even though you know the outcome of Treadwell's story, Jans makes it a nail-biter as he leads you up through Timothy's life and the eventual, brutal deaths of two humans and two grizzlies."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 15, 1996, Patricia Monaghan, review of A Place Beyond: Finding Home in Arctic Alaska, p. 216; October 15, 2000, Patricia Monaghan, review of Tracks of the Unseen: Meditations on Alaska Wildlife, Landscape, and Photography, p. 409; July, 2005, Nancy Bent, review of Grizzly Maze: Timothy Treadwell's Fatal Obsession with Alaskan Bears, p. 1884.

Entertainment Weekly, July 8, 2005, Raymond Fiore, review of Grizzly Maze, p. 75.

Library Journal, October 15, 2000, Kimberly Bateman, review of Tracks of the Unseen, p. 90.

Publishers Weekly, May 16, 2005, review of Grizzly Maze, p. 53.

Seattle Weekly, August 17, 2005, John Dicker, review of Grizzly Maze.