Book Review: ‘Bob Atwood’s Alaska: The Memoirs of a Legendary Newspaper Man.’

“Bob Atwood’s Alaska: The Memoirs of a Legendary Newspaper Man,” Bob Atwood. 2003, Marilaine Publishing, Anchorage, Alaska. Third edition. 290 pages. Pictures of Alaska pre-and-post statehood, newspaper clippings, WWII, Trans-Alaska Pipeline. $30 ISBN 0-9740036-2-X

Bob Atwood arrived  in Anchorage at the age of 28 with his wife Evangeline. They planned to stay for five years, which quickly turned into a lifetime. He and Evangeline saw a lot of changes and they affected some of them. In “Bob Atwood’s Alaska,” Bob Atwood shares stories and details from his tenure at the helm of The Anchorage Times.

Atwood, born in Chicago, studied journalism at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. He worked at the school’s printshop and was a night reporter for the Worcester Telegram to pay for his schooling. He graduated in 1929. While living in Illinois, he met Evangeline Rasmuson, a social worker who was born in Sitka. The two of them married in 1932 and went back to work at the Worcester Telegram.

He owed his father-in-law Edward A. Rasmuson – a banker – $10,000 for having purchased an eight page newspaper known as “The Anchorage Daily Times.” Alaska was a territory and Anchorage, still a tent city, had 2,000 residents – by the time he sold “The Times” to Bill Allen 55 years later, Anchorage had 250,000 residents.

Perhaps someone else would have filled the role Atwood played in Alaska if he had not come up, but it would have had to have been a very particular, formidable someone because many of the people he had to persuade to change their perspectives were set and determined in how they wanted to do things. Atwood arrived in Alaska ready to practice journalism and helped grow a state along the way.

After purchasing the paper, he found that his staff was not well trained in journalism. He had to hire from outside of Alaska, with talent paying their own way to be interviewed.

Atwood also found that the city that was not used to journalists. He wrote, “Having trained the staff, I found that I also had to train the big wheels in town how to deal with a newspaper. Public officials in Anchorage were not used to having their activities reported nor did they feel obliged to answer questions.”

Atwood and other young people saw Alaska’s potential. When he came to Alaska, the federal government owned 99.9 percent of all the land, and the railroad had a monopoly on transportation. Atwood wrote that since the government owned so much that it had a duty to open Alaska up to business.

He also wrote about Alaska during World War II. Atwood was once in on a discussion between military commanders who were deciding how to defend Alaska. Because it was wartime and Alaska played an important role in the Pacific theater, he had to cope with something that all editors hate – censorship.

He wrote of the shortages faced during the war and in the years after it. He also reported on the treatment of the Japanese – notably the Kimuras, a well known Anchorage family whose son had joined the Army before his parents and siblings were interned.

Atwood wrote of times in which he locked horns with powerful people  who wanted to stop development or do things that were not in the best interests of Anchorage residents. He detailed his encounters with senators, congressmen and celebrities who loved Alaska as much as he did, and how he responded to those opposed to it. Atwood never failed to mention people involved in leading development projects.

It is surprising to read that – according to Atwood – the opponents of statehood were “absentee owners and they influenced Alaskans by threatening economic reprisals.”

Atwood wrote that at that time, Alaskans were paying federal taxes but did not get the benefits. He published his statehood opinions in The Times and wrote in his book that “Alaskans read them and took them on as their own views.”

Many of the topics in “Bob Atwood’s Alaska” are relevant today. Policy makers who don’t like to talk to the press. Monopolies in Alaska that resented lawmakers who opposed them. Moving the state capitol. Outside interests funding lawmakers and fueling political fires. Feds telling Alaskans what to do when Alaska is different from the rest of the United States. What was unique about the time that Bob Atwood was at the helm of what would become the Anchorage Times is that he was a central figure in all of it. Although he was a controversial force, he was always one with a clear vision.

Atwood wrote about the newspaper wars between the Anchorage Times and the Anchorage Daily News. The details were messy and Atwood ultimately sold The Anchorage Times to oil tycoon Bill Allen.

Atwood finishes strong, detailing politics and life in Alaska – particularly Anchorage – over the years. He reminds readers of the earlier days in Alaska when people were dependent upon each other. Atwood wrote,“When Alaskans needed a shoulder put to the wheel, everybody put his shoulder to the wheel and all pushed in the same direction. We trusted one another.”

Atwood acknowledged accusations that he was a powerful newspaper tycoon whose civic involvement got him rich with what his paper supported. He wrote that they were correct about his wealth – “I got richer as the people of Anchorage got richer as the town grew and prospered.”

I enjoyed the book as it is a solid piece of history written by a notable character who shaped Alaska – but I have a problem. It would not be fair to expect anyone to write an autobiography without bias. I quoted in a book review, “Black Lives in Alaska: A History of African Americans in the Far Northwest” that “Robert Atwood, publisher of the influential paper, The Anchorage Times and conservative proponent of aggressive policing, frequently circulated rumors about the Black population as his paper covered sensational instances of crime that bolstered racist stereotypes.”

Robert Atwood is a complicated and important player in Alaska history. The history of Alaska would not be complete without him, but he was also not a saint. Though Atwood’s memoir is a fascinating and insightful picture into Alaska’s past, it is also a reminder that accurate research on anyone or anything needs to come from a variety of reputable sources.

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