Deborah: A Wilderness Narrative

Vanguard Press, 1970. First edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Good . 9x6x2. Signed by Author. A small piece missing to front panel of dustjacket, with some edgewear and short tears. Signed David Roberts on half title page; signed copies rarely offered. An Alaskan classic, which changed the face of the mountaineering narrative. The story of Roberts's 1964 expedition with fellow Harvard Mountaineering Club member Don Jensen to the eastern side of Mount Deborah in Alaska. Their two-man attempt on the then-unclimbed ridge was a rash and heroic effort. The story tells not only what happened on the mountain, but what happened in the stark isolation to the climbers and their friendship, as each became totally dependent on the other for survival. David Stuart Roberts (1943 – 2021) was an American climber, mountaineer, college professor, and author of books and articles about climbing and the history of the American Southwest. He was often acknowledged as the dean of American climbing literature. He was particularly noted for his books The Mountain of My Fear and Deborah: A Wilderness Narrative, chronicling major ascents in Alaska in the 1960s, which had a major impact on the form of mountaineering literature. In thirteen seasons spent in the Alaskan wilderness, Roberts was well known for many first ascents, including the Wickersham Wall on Denali, the west rib of Mount Huntington, climbing in the Western Brooks Range and the Kichatna Spires, and on the east face of Mount Dickey. Roberts also named Alaska's Revelation Mountains.