Summary Of The Cruelest Miles

The book I chose to read was The Cruelest Miles: the Heroic Story of Dogs and Men In a Race Against an Epidemic by cousins Gay and Laney Salisbury and it was published by W.W. Norton and Company in 2003. This book is set in Nome, Alaska during the winter of 1925. At this time there was a deadly widespread outbreak of diphtheria that was threatening the city's people. Many were dying and Dr. Welch knew he needed to do something to help save these people. The one thing that could truly get rid of this disease was a serum but Dr. Welch was running out and the supply he ordered never made it to Nome. The fastest way to get new serum was to send a few Eskimos and their dog teams across the Alaskan wilderness to bring the much needed medicine to Nome. Throughout the rest of the book it tells the journey of these brave men and their dogs and the troubles they ran in too along the way. …show more content…
Later in her life while in New York she worked for Associated Press and Reuters. She met this guy who would later be her husband Aly Sujo who convinced her that she was not meant for the everyday news cycle. Laney wanted to write about stories that have meaning and that has been developed throughout the ages so she left her job and went on a three year Alaskan journey with her cousin Gay Salisbury. This trip resulted in the writing of The Cruelest Miles. Both authors didn’t have experience with writing books when they wrote this one because this was the first book they wrote. Laney had some experience in reporting on a subject because of her job background. Although neither author had much experience with the topic of the book or even writing I think they did a pretty good