“Heat and Ice,” the second book of Clyde Toland’s “Becoming Frederick Funston Trilogy,” has been released.
Signed copies of the book — officially titled “Heat and Ice: Frederick Funston’s Exploration of Death Valley, Alaska, and the British Northwest Territory’’ — will be available soon at the Allen County Historical Society. The brook is also available on Amazon.
This portion of Funston’s biography covers his years as an explorer and as a botanist for the United States Department of Agriculture.
Nancy, Clyde’s wife, came up with the title, Clyde noted, because Funston’s excursion in Death Valley featured temperatures as high as 120 degrees, while plummeting to a minus 50 degrees when he slept outdoors in Alaska and the Northwest Territory.
Volume 3, “Yankee Hero,” is due to be released by the end of the month, Toland said, and covers Funston’s military career after he joined the Cuban Liberation Army and found the military to his liking. He eventually became a general.
The first volume, “American Hero, Kansas Heritage: Frederick Funston’s Early Years 1865-1890,” was released in the spring.
The extensive biography of Funston’s early years took Toland 27 years to complete, starting about the time Funston’s home was moved from its original farm site north of Iola to the west side of the courthouse square in 1995.
