“I believe history belongs to everyone, and our history should be available to everyone,” Helen Hegener said, describing her core motivation. “I mean, I sell books about history, but I still believe very strongly that history should be accessible to everyone.”
Hegener’s work draws from both her personal interests and life experience. She became aware of history at a very young age when her father, a computer systems analyst with the Army, was stationed in Europe and was exposed to the continent’s storied past.Photo book captures the Eagle River Nature Center’s many creatures and communitiesHegener came to Alaska in 1965 when her dad finished his military career in Anchorage.
The couple operated Hegener Publishing until splitting amicably in 2008. At that point, Hegener ceded her share of the company to her now-former husband, “because I wanted to write about Alaskan subjects.” Her first Alaska book, “The Matanuska Colony Barns,” was about barns built as part of the agricultural settlement that was established in 1935.
“I was familiar with the mushers, but mostly up here in the North,” she said of the stories she uncovered. “What I wasn’t familiar with was the history Outside. I had no idea that mushing was as popular as it was back in the 1920s and 1930s.”Hegener has stepped completely outside of Alaska for her latest project. Soon to be published, “The History of Women’s Professional Bronc Riding: 1904 to 1940″ recounts the long-forgotten heyday of women rodeo stars.