Joe McGinniss

Joe McGinniss has died at the age of 71 — complications related to prostate cancer.

He was best known as the author of Fatal Vision and The Selling of the President 1968.  He got famous again several years ago when he moved next door to Sarah Palin while working on his unauthorized biography of her, The Rogue.

I only read one book by Joe McGinniss:  Going to Extremes, written in 1980.  It was non-fiction, based on his experiences and personal impressions of Alaska.  It's a page-turner.  The book doesn't exactly make you want to drop everything and move to Alaska.  But his writing style makes you feel like you're right there.  The dead-end hopelessness in Barrow, Alaska (34 years ago anyway, if not now), going on a camping trip in the Brooks mountain range, getting drenched in Ketchikan's 24/7/365 rainfall, going to Anchorage and seeing a bunch of faceless new malls and housing tracts that weren't there three months ago — You're there.

R.I.P.