ALASKA STORIES edited by John &...

ALASKA STORIES edited by John & Kirsten Miller (Chronicle Books: $11.95; 182 pp., paperback original). The remote location, hostile climate and sheer scale of Alaska have defeated many writers’ efforts to categorize the state. Although hardly definitive, this readable volume of recollections, interviews and folk tales explores facts and fantasies about the vast state. In his introduction, Michael Doogan comments: “Alaska is the big, unsettled corner where the myths no longer useful in modern America ended up.”