The Cruelest Miles: The Heroic Story of Dogs and Men in a Race Against an Epidemic
By Laney and Gay Salisbury
W.W. Norton & Company, 2003

(From the publisher) Alaska, 1925: the diptheria serum is 674 miles away. Without it, the people of Nome will not survive.

Nome, Alaska, sits on the edge of the Bering Sea two degrees below the Arctic Circle, and there are few more forbidding places on earth, especially in winter. Dr. Curtis Welch knew the signs of diphtheria, knew that his patients—many of them children—would die without a shipment of fresh serum.

The port was icebound and the nearest railhead was almost 700 miles away across mountains, rivers, and the treacherous ice of Norton Sound. A blizzard was brewing, and airplanes, in 1925, could not fly in such conditions. Only the dogs could do it.

A relay was set up, and the drivers, many of them Native Alaskans, set off into the night at 60° below zero, often trusting their lead dogs to find the trail under feet of driven snow. The legendary heroism and endurance of the men and dogs in the Serum Run need no enhancement. Here, for the first time, their story is told in full.

About the authors
(From the publisher) Gay Salisbury is the former associate publisher of Basic Books. She splits her time between Fairbanks, Alaska, and New York City. Laney Salisbury, a Columbia Journalism School graduate, has reported from Africa, the Middle East, and New York. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her dog. The authors are first cousins. The Cruelest Miles is their first book.