 George Erickson holds a Bachelor of Science and a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from the University of Minnesota. He is a recent director of the American Humanist Assoc., a past president of the Humanists of MN, and has served on the New Brighton, Mn. Environmental Quality Commission. He is the recent Vice President of the Minnesota Seaplane Pilots' Assoc. and a past chairman of the Worthington, MN Airport Commission and the Nobles county Art Center. A native of Virginia, Mn, he is married, has two grown sons, and recently moved from New Brighton to Ely Lake near Eveleth.
His first book, True North: Exploring the Great Wilderness by Bush Plane, which is based
on experiences gathered during 38 flights through Alaska, the Yukon, the Northwest
Territories and northern Quebec, rode the Canadian Bookseller's Coast to Coast bestseller
list for 3 months in 2000-1, and was published in the U.S. by Lyons Press in 2002.
In April, 2001, Dr. Erickson was named the Author of the Year 2000 by the Minnesota
Aviation Hall of Fame for True North and for his many articles on aviation.
The author's writing and photographs have sold to MPLS - ST PAUL MAGAZINE, DENTAL
SURVEY, ARCTIC IN COLOUR, THE HUMANIST, PRIVATE PILOT, MINNESOTA FLYER, NORTHERN
PILOT, AIRWAYS, THE AOPA PILOT, THE MINNEAPOLIS STAR TRIBUNE, THE ST PAUL PIONEER
PRESS, MOTORCYCLE TOUR & CRUISER, Cessna Flyer, Piper Flyer and a variety of
specialty magazines.
His second book, TIME TRAVELING WITH SCIENCE & THE SAINTS was published by
Prometheus Books of New York in April 2003.
His third book, Back to the Barrens: On the Wing with da Vinci & Friends, the sequel
to True North, was published in January 2008. It contains some 50 unique photographs.
Dr. Erickson
presents travel and nature slide lectures to a wide range of audiences large and
small, including University of Minnesota Extension classes, the Bell Museum of
Natural History, the Minnesota Seaplane Pilots Assoc., the world-famous Experimental
Aircraft Association meeting at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, annual conventions of the Civil
Air Patrol, the Canadian Owners and Pilots Assoc. and the annual meeting of Wilderness
Medicine Professionals.
His travels have
taken him from the top of the Rocky Mountains to the depths of the Grand Canyon, and
from the Arctic coast to the Great Barrier Reefs of Australia and Belize. He has hosted
The Voice of Reason, a cable TV program produced by the Humanist Association of Minnesota,
and has promoted True North on public and commercial radio and television.
** The author donates all of his book profits to educational charities.
Some Published Works
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True North: Exploring the Great Wilderness by Bush Plane
Thomas Allen Publishers, Toronto, Canada
Globe Pequot/Lyons Press, New York, NY
When appendicitis, loss of employment, and a threatened divorce remove three flying
friends from a long-planned flight to Alaska, the author sets off on his own. With the
aid of his seaplane, the Tundra Cub, he dips a wing to polar bears, is surrounded
by musk ox and caribou herds, searches the tundra for clues to the disappearance of
a long-missing priest, and measures the earth like Eratosthenes at the edge of an arctic sea.
More than a non-fiction travelogue, True North tells tales of John Hornby,
the man who starved to death in the game sanctuary he fought to create, of a con-man
extraordinaire named Soapy Smith, of unscrupulous missionaries, of life at early
Hudson's Bay Company posts, and of the new Mother Lode of the North - diamonds.
With tributes to the science that makes his flight and all of our comforts possible,
the author communes with the fireside skull of "Unok" under flaring northern lights,
illuminates plate tectonics at Great Slave Lake's McDonald fault - and twice almost
loses his life.
Following a course determined by weather and whim, Erickson damns wasteful habits that
denude British Columbia forests, visits the troubled Sekani Indian settlement of
Fort Ware, B.C., and returns to the 1898 Gold Rush at Dyea's Chilkoot Pass. Amidst
an eclectic mix of engine failures, erotica, history, humor and mountain Shangrilas,
he kneels on a Great Slave Lake shoreline composed of the organisms that filled our skies
with oxygen and breathed us into life. Over-flying forest fires, he camps beside a
tangle of rusting snares that liberate boyhood memories of death
and grief. A blend of stunning landscapes, wildlife, myths and personal experience,
True North reveals the author's love of nature and his
passion for truth.
"A wonderful book" - Clive Cussler, NEW YORK TIMES Bestselling Author
"Ultimate adventure - one of the ten best new outdoors books of the year." - OUTDOOR CANADA
"Elegant prose and an ability to spin a tale." - GLOBE AND MAIL
"Erickson is the spiritual descendant of the great explorers he writes about." - Chicago Tribune.
True North is available from the usual sources, but for a signed copy mail $15.00
(postage included) to George Erickson at 4678 Cedar Island Drive, Eveleth, MN 55734. A
companion CD of 167 color photos that follow True North from cover to cover is available
for $10.00 including postage.
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Time Traveling with Science and the Saints
Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY
For sixteen centuries Christianity dominated Western culture, during which time a powerful
church rigidly and sometimes ruthlessly imposed its dogma. Under these conditions
progressive thinkers who departed from the Christian worldview encountered stiff
opposition from ecclesiastical authorities. Persecution by both church and state as
a means of stifling heretics became routine. Using the biblical dictum, "by their
fruits shall ye know them" (Mt. 7:20), humanist George Erickson surveys the historical
record of the defenders of faith and the proponents of reason. His analysis challenges
the commonly held belief that despite its many abuses religion on balance civilized
the world. Beginning with the unfettered progress of science in pre-Christian,
polytheistic societies, he notes that this progress was soon actively thwarted by
the growing Christian throng. Aided by the carrot-and-stick appeal of heaven and hell,
missionary passion, superstitions, and miracles, Christianity gradually overwhelmed its
religious competitors while simultaneously working to destroy all interest in scientific
reasoning.
Yet even amidst these suffocating often bloody conditions, certain individuals doggedly
pursued new and dangerous, frequently heretical scientific research, often at the risk
of their lives. Erickson briefly profiles such pioneers as Giordano Bruno, Copernicus,
Galileo, Darwin, Linnaeus, and others. While condemning the Christianity that produced
such abominations as the Inquisition and witch hunts, Erickson concludes on an optimistic
note, emphasizing that science and secular society have broken free from centuries of
religious opposition, and continue to benefit the world through mass education, modern
medicine, and technological progress.
Time Traveling with Science and the Saints retails for $24.95, but for a signed copy
mail $20.00 (postage included)
to George Erickson, 4678 Cedar Island Drive, Eveleth, MN 55734.
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Back to the Barrens: On the Wing with da Vinci & Friends
(endorsed by Clive Cussler)
Hancock House Publisher - Blaine, Washington
In Back to the Barrens, George Erickson, the best-selling author of
True North: Exploring the Great Wilderness by Bush Plane, returns to the
far north in search of new sights and stories to tell. Like Robert Service and
Jack London, the giants who captivated us with tales told across a flickering
campfire, he invites new readers to climb into the Tundra Cub II and fly off to
a land where the northern lights shimmer, the rivers run cold, and cares slowly wither and die.
We'll camp on a fog-bound Hudson Bay island, alert for polar bears. Moving inland, we'll
follow musk oxen, stroll through caribou herds that cover the earth like living carpets and
laugh at arctic hares that run on their hind legs like men. Near the Arctic Circle, we'll
enter a land where the sun, like a moody teenager, refuses to go to bed, then six months
later declines to rise. As we wander from campsite to campsite like a bee from blossom to
blossom, we'll dust off treasured memories that reach back forty years.
Back to the Barrens, like the author's True North, provides a fascinating
tour of the far North, of aeronautics, science, mythology and history in an entertaining,
readable book written with humor by a man with the capacity to dream, and the ability to
make his dream come true.
Back to the Barrens retails for $18.00 plus tax, but for a signed copy send $18.00
to George Erickson, 4678 Cedar Island Drive, Eveleth, MN 55734.
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George Erickson
4678 Cedar Island Drive
Eveleth, MN 55734
218-744-2003
Check out George's web site from HERE!
tundracub@mchsi.com
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