By Liz Beavers
lbeavers@newstribune.info
tribune managing editor

KEYSER — A writer who has chosen to retire to the mountains of West Virginia has released a book of tales based on experiences during his early days as a news reporter in the rollicking territory that is now the state of Alaska.
“West of the Yukon” is chock full of tales which Del Malkie of Keyser says are based in truth — either from stories he himself covered or stories that were told to him from reliable sources.
Malkie, who most recently worked for a short while as a writer for the Mineral Daily News-Tribune, returned to the last frontier in the 1950s after doing a stint as a sailor in the Aleutians during World War II.
He had joined the service in 1942 as a 17-year-old radio operator, and later spent a year on a mine sweeper and another year on an aircraft carrier. It was a case of appendicitis, however, that led him to meet his future wife, a  nurse named Dorothy Ann, and when he got out of the service he and Dorothy and their new family returned to Alaska in 1953.
“We drove across country in an old station wagon,” he recalls. “We spent four years in Alaska. It was a good experience.”
Malkie spent his time in Alaska as city editor of the Anchorage Daily News, as well as contributing stories to the Associated Press, Newsweek, and CBS, among others.
As one of the first television reporters with a full-time news show in the new territory, he broke new ground in journalism just as the new territory began to develop and grow in the days of prospectors, trappers, and dog sled races.
As a result, the colorful people and exciting events found their way into Malkie’s life and, 50 years later, into the stories which he has included in “West of the Yukon.”
“The stories were really fun to write, and they’re mostly true,” he said, admitting, however, that “after 50 years, I won’t say I didn’t embellish them a little bit.”
The ten tales in the book cover a variety of topics, from a ghostly visitor in “Alaska Valentine” to the amusing “Love Story” of a wedding night prank that resulted in the couple’s bed floating in the sea.
“That was one of my favorites,” Malkie says. “It’s so unique.”
Malkie’s days in the Alaskan territory were only a small part of his impressive career, however. Upon leaving there, he returned to his home

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town of Annapolis, where he served as media relations director for the U.S. Naval Academy, and then to Washington, D.C., where he served as public affairs officer for the Department of Defense, press officer for Congress, and White House correspondent for the Evening Star, among other positions.
Framed and hanging on the wall of his home office, in fact, is his White House press card — the first to be issued in color.
Among other memorabilia which he proudly displays are a signed letter of congratulations from Ronald Reagan, a signed letter and photograph of Marilyn Monroe, and an autographed photo of J. Edgar Hoover.
Will he ever write about the experiences that these pieces of history represent?
“I’m working on my memoirs now,” Malkie says, smiling.
Copies of “West of the Yukon” are currently available online at Borders, Barnes & Noble and Amazon, or from the publishing company’s website at http://www.publishamerica.com. They may also be ordered by calling (301) 695-1707.