Ishi's Journey: From the Center to the Edge of the World

By James A. Freeman

Book Overview

This historical novel is the dramatic retelling of the true story of Ishi, the last "stone age man" in North America and the sole survivor of the Northern California tribe called the Yahi. Ishi's Journey from the Center to the Edge of the World is a story of heartbreak and hope akin to the Anne Frank saga and the sequestering of her family during the Nazi regime. Ishi's incredible story needs to be heard again today. In the words of one of his best Anglo friends, Dr. Saxton Pope: Ishi "looked upon us as sophisticated children--smart, but not wise. We knew many things, and much that is false. He knew nature, which is always true. His were the qualities of character that last forever. He was kind; he had courage and self-restraint, and though all had been taken from him, there was no bitterness in his heart. His soul was that of a child, his mind that of a philosopher."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0879612312
• ISBN13: 9780879612313
• Release Date: May 2023
• Publisher: Naturegraph & Keven Brown Publications
• Length: 226 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Frank Wilson, Books Editor, The "Philadelphia Inquirer" newspaper, AP

This is a wise and wonderful book. The descriptions are lovingly precise, and the whole novel is a moving elegy for Ishi, the last wild Indian in North America, and of his vanished people. If this book doesn't sometimes make you smile and also move you to tears, then you are in need of a heart transplant." Frank Wilson, Books Editor, The "Philadelphia Inquirer" newspaper, AP

My personal journey with Ishi's Journey (by James A.Freeman)

This is an amazing book, a modern Adam and Eve story where the last survivor of a northern California Indian tribe must struggle with incest taboos even though he knows that he and his woman-cousin are the last hope for his people's survival. Ishi's point-of-view is vividly realized, both in his wilderness homeland and after he joins the wilds of civilization of 1914 San Francisco. This novel is a dramatic realization of the real story of Ishi, one told through the inventiveness of fiction. It's a book of unspeakable sadness and mystical euphoria, a story almost too true to life and almost too incredible to have its basic in the real tale of Ishi, the last wild Yahi Indian.