"Ada Blackjack" remembered by Palmer residents

Editor's note -- This is part of an interview the author had with Fireside Books. It is being reprinted here courtesy of Fireside. To see the entire interview, interested people can stop by Fireside Books in Palmer.

Jennifer Niven's first book, "The Ice Master," was named one of Entertainment Weekly's Top 10 non-fiction books of the year when it was released in 2000 and also quickly became a local favorite. Her newest book, with a similar theme and even a few characters that will be familiar to fans of "The Ice Master," appears set for a similar course.

Like her first book, "Ada Blackjack" is a remarkable true story set in the frozen ice of the Arctic. This time Jennifer Niven charts the fate of a small crew, made up of four young men and a 23-year-old Eskimo woman named Ada Blackjack, that headed to Wrangel Island for a secret attempt to colonize it for Great Britain in 1921. For the two years, Ada Blackjack and her companions struggled to eke out an existence on the nearly barren island and in the end only Ada survived.

The book is of particular interest for Mat-Su Valley residents as Ada Blackjack Johnson spent her last days in Palmer. She lived at the Palmer Pioneer Home in the early 1980s before she died at the age of 85.

Once again Niven turns thorough research into a chilling survival story, but part of what makes "Ada Blackjack" unique is its main character -- a woman accused by some of being a prostitute and a heavy drinker, a woman with no knowledge of hunting and trapping who in the end survives in the Arctic by her own hands, a woman who endears herself to her companions and the reader.

Fireside Books: I understand you learned of Ada Blackjack and her time on Wrangel Island during your research for "The Ice Master." When did you know that you wanted to eventually write her story, too?

Niven: I think I knew after I was finished with "The Ice Master" completely. I was kind of recuperating from writing and researching all the long period of time it took to do that. I started getting the itch again to write something not too long after I was finished, and I kept coming back to this idea in my mind. While I was researching for "The Ice Master" I stumbled across Ada, and I was just fascinated with her story and had to really force myself to put aside the urge to research this idea while I finished "The Ice Master," I think it was always in the back of my mind.

Fireside Books: What initially attracted you to the subject of polar exploration? Was it something you had always been interested in?

Niven: No, not at all. Like I tell people, I just really think it was the stories themselves. Those stories are what compelled me to write both books. People ask me, "Are you obsessed with the Arctic? Did you always love the Arctic?" and I say I think it is one of the many fascinating regions of this country and the world. But in terms of being interested in the Arctic for itself, it was really the characters.

Fireside Books: Ada Blackjack is a fascinating heroine, in part because of her somewhat checkered reputation, including rumors of being a prostitute and not doing everything she could to save her companions on Wrangel Island. Did any of this ever cause you to hesitate in writing the book, or did her complexities attract you as a writer?

Niven: I didn't even know much about her checkered reputation until I started really delving into the research. I think there's always that fear initially. I don't want to offend any family members. I don't want to say something about this woman unless I'm absolutely certain of it. I don't want to say anything bad about this woman. But one of the good things is that while she did have a checkered reputation, she was also such a fascinating character, and I think one of the appealing things about her is she's very human. She does have some not-so-great aspects of her past and reputation, but at the same time she's absolutely inspiring and a wonderful person. She grows and develops throughout the story, which is also part of what really interested me. I have to say, too, I was happy to find that while her past might have been mildly checkered, it wasn't really, really checkered. I just felt it was more innocent.

Fireside Books: You have been quoted as saying you did not want to be branded an "Arctic" writer, but it seems you probably have become somewhat of an expert in the field. What will you be working on next? Is it going to be in this genre?

Jennifer Niven: It will be nonfiction. I've just been researching another idea. I haven't really started talking about it yet, but I can tell you it's going to be in a warm setting. Probably somewhere in the American south. I feel like I've done those stories on the Arctic and had such a wonderful time doing them, but I need to go in another direction. Although, I still want to go to the Arctic. I am fascinated with it.

Jennifer Niven lives in Atlanta. "Ada Blackjack" is out in hardback and sells for $21.21 at Fireside Books.