Inside of Time

Book excerpt: The unforgettable story of Ruth Gruber’s rugged travels through Alaska and years spent helping refugees escape to Israel in the nation’s turbulent early days. Drawing from hundreds of notebooks accumulated throughout her career, Gruber’s breathtaking memoir spans some of the most significant events of the twentieth century, covering the years 1941 to 1952. She details her eighteen months spent surveying Alaska on behalf of the United States government, her role assisting Holocaust refugees’ emigration from war-torn Europe, and her relationships with some of the most important figures of the era, including Eleanor Roosevelt and Golda Meir. Gruber describes these eleven years of her inspiring life with clarity and insight, providing an extraordinary inside look at some of the twentieth century’s turning points.