by Glenn Taylor
Northern News Services

NNSL (Dec 05/97) - Bern Will Brown is at it again.

The former editor of the Aklavik Journal is about to unleash a new book on the public, a two-volume epic on his life that promises to be as hot a seller as the journal.

"It's basically a synopsis of my 50 years in the North," said Brown, now residing at Colville Lake. The consummate historian has been keeping notes on his colorful life every day since he first arrived to the North in the late 1940s.

His new book Arctic Journal, promises to be a page-turning chronicle of those colorful years as a Catholic priest in communities like Inuvik, Aklavik and many other communities up and down the valley.

According to Walter Stewart of the Toronto Star, who reviewed an advance copy, the Journal "will be one of the highlights of the next publishing season... It is altogether fascinating."

"A lot of people have been encouraging me to write down some of the stories I tell people when they come down here to visit," said Brown, whose home features a museum of books, photos and films collected over a lifetime.

"Unfortunately, the North is losing a lot of its history. My story is run of the mill, but the difference between me and other people who lived more interesting lives is that I wrote mine down."

Brown said he hopes to begin selling the book sometime early next year. The Arctic Journal is currently being printed in Montreal. The book is 272 pages of history with 32 pages of color photos to go along with them. The price is $23.95 plus GST.

Brown has been working on this project for 10 years. He met Pierre Berton a few years ago, who through friends put him in touch with some Ontario high-powered publishing people, like Jack McClelland of McClelland and Stewart.

The company was interested in his book, said Brown, but when he submitted the final copy, at 100,000 words, the prospective publishers replied that they wanted the work culled into a smaller, neater journal. Brown would have none of that.

"They told me to hire Max Ward's ghost writer for $60,000 to cut out some words. I wasn't interested," said Brown.

Instead, he went to a different publisher, who agreed to publish his book in one piece, albeit in two separate volumes. The first book will be followed by a second, which takes over at the mid-way point and leads to Brown's doorstep in Colville Lake.

The Aklavik Journal, Brown's first work, has been selling briskly, with 1,300 of the 2,000 copies printed sold.