The protagonist of this novel is heroic, majestic, a born leader, a devoted husband and proud father. He is destined to be long remembered by whoever reads about his life. His is a great auk. The great auks were the only flightless species of North Atlantic bird. Their tiny wings were not capable of raising their large bodies into the air. Yet these ridiculous flipper-like appendages—pumping in perfect harmony with the vast splayed feet with their tough rubbery webbing—could propel the birds on or beneath the billowing ocean surface faster than six strong men could row a boat. When standing upright, the great auks resembled penguins. These noble birds have been extinct for more than one hundred years, but they live again in this amazing novel that follows them and their last leader from their North Atlantic summer mating grounds on Eldey Island south top the Carolinas. On the island and along three-thousand-mile migration route lurk many perils—storms, killer whales, fishhooks, scientists, and the "terrible tune of swishthump" that marks the onslaught of profiteering hunters with their murderous clubs. Before the story is finished, we witness the growth of the young great auk from the dramatic moment of hatching, into his adventures as a timorous fledgling, until the time when he himself becomes the monarch of hi dwindling flock. As the seven remaining birds begin their return to Eldey Island, the reader fears what he knows is inevitable, that these great auks are the last, that there will be no more. Such is the power of Allan Eckert's novel and its remarkable characters.
Author
Allan W. Eckert was an American historian, historical novelist, and naturalist. Eckert was born in Buffalo, New York, and raised in the Chicago, Illinois area, but had been a long-time resident of Bellefontaine, Ohio, near where he attended college. As a young man, he hitch-hiked around the United States, living off the land and learning about wildlife. He began writing about nature and American history at the age of thirteen, eventually becoming an author of numerous books for children and adults. His children's novel, Incident at Hawk's Hill, was a runner-up for the Newbery Medal in 1972. One of his novels tells how the great auk went extinct. In addition to his novels, he also wrote several unproduced screenplays and more than 225 Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom television shows for which he received an Emmy Award. In a 1999 poll conducted by the Ohioana Library Association, jointly with Toni Morrison, Allan W. Eckert was voted "Favorite Ohio Writer of All Time." Eckert died in his sleep on July 7, 2011, in Corona, California, at the age of 80.
