Letters from the Governor's Wife: A View of Russian Alaska 1859-1862 (Berengiana)

In 1859 the Finnish-Swedish aristocrat and naval officer, Hampus Furuhjelm arrived in Alaska as one of the Russian colony's last ambassadors. He brought with him his young wife Anna Furuhjelm, who wrote many long letters in English to her mother. These letters, for the first time, give us a vivid picture of everyday life in the colonial capital, Sitka, in the period shortly before the USA. took over Alaska. The letters have been edited and commented by Anna Furuhjelm's great-granddaughter, Annie Christensen. "The wind is howling and I feel cold and sleepy, still I must finish this before I go to bed". Anna Furuhjelm's letters to her Scottish mother Ann von Schoultz form a diary of her first years in Alaska as the Russian Governor's wife. A few hours after their wedding on February 2, 1859 in Helsinki, Finland, she departs for Alaska on a sledge with her husband Hampus Furuhjelm and writes the first letter to her mother on the evening of that very same day. When news of her mother's death reaches Alaska on October 17, 1862, her last letter was set aside, unfinished.Sitting by her writing case in Government House in Sitka, Anna shared her thoughts and impressions of the New World - or, more precisely, of her new world that had two unknown continents to be explored: married life and Russian America. She had only known her husband for five weeks before the wedding. Even her cosmopolitan background could not possibly have prepared her for the uniqueness of the Russian overseas colonies on the very edge of the American wilderness.Anna Furuhjelm's letters make up a lively and moving account of everyday life in Alaska as seen from Government House just a few years before Russia sold Alaska to the United States in 1867. An introduction provides the biographical and historical background. Edited By Annie Constance Christensen ; With An Introduction And An Epilogue By Annie Constance Christensen And Peter Ulf Møller. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [258]-261) And Index.