Ranald MacDonald
Pacific Rim Adventurer
Jo Ann Roe

Prolific Northwest historian Jo Ann Roe has written the definitive biography of MacDonald (1824-94), who in 1848 arranged with an American whaling ship to be cast off in a rowboat on the northern Japanese coast. He spent the following year teaching English in forbidden Japan, then traveled in Asia, Europe, and Canada before returning to the Pacific Northwest in 1858, where he continued his life of adventure.

"An incurable traveler in the mold of Sir Richard Burton, MacDonald fit the profile of the classic nineteenth-century explorer of distant lands and people. The author vividly depicts the scenes of a bygone world—whaling ships on the high seas; regal, isolated Japan; Hawaiian royalty and far-off Guam; gold rushes in Australia,..South American ports; Rome, Paris, and London; unexplored Vancouver Island; and the bustling trading post at Fort Colville, Washington Territory."
—Craig Holstine, author, Forgotten Corner, A History of the Colville National Forest, Washington

"Roe, a respected Northwest historian and travel writer deserves credit for, researching and writing about MacDonald's incredible life, and WSU Press shares that credit for publishing it."
—The Oregonian