Unpublished manuscript of a novel: Diomeda, by Frank Caldwell and John W. Sluss, begins with the purchase of Alaska. Secretary of State William H. Seward, under direction from President Johnson, requests a Colonel Warren to travel to Alaska to carry out an economic survey on the new territory and to decide on locations for new army posts. The Colonel is to be accompanied by, among others, his wife and his wife’s sister. They are living in Louisiana, and so the prospect of leaving the comforts of home to spend two or more years in Alaska is a daunting proposition; the sister, however, is comforted to know that Captain Darren will be accompanying them. The book covers the journey to Sitka, and continues with explorations of Kodiak and the Aleutians. Diomeda, of the title, is a baby born to an ivory carver and his wife, who is part Russian. The medicine man tells the couple they must give up their baby because the circumstances of her birth break a terrible taboo; but, instead of killing the baby, the father takes her away and hands her over to the now Mrs. Darren. She somehow manages to keep the baby’s true identity a secret, even from her husband, and raises the child as their own. As Diomeda matures, Mrs. Darren worries about whether nature or nurture will win out. There is much discussion of the science of evolution and what it means to be civilized. The manuscript’s ending seems abrupt, and perhaps there was to be more. Beverly Caldwell Smith