Mark Andersen's only friend was Ben, the Alaskan brown bear that Fog Benson kept chained in the dark rickety shed on Mark's route between home and school. Mark shared his leftover sandwiches with the big bear and sometimes even unchained him so they could sit together in the doorway and enjoy the bright sunshine.

When Mark was told that Fog Benson wanted to get rid of the bear, and he could not persuade his father to buy him, to save his life, Mark led Ben, like a boy with his dog, up over the Alaskan tundra to where he could escape to the distant white mountains.

Mark unsnapped the chain and said in a rush, "You're free now. Goodbye, Ben." But as he turned to go, Ben padded at his heels as contentedly as if still fastened to a chain. Mark struck Ben across the nose to make him go, but at sight of the hurt, surprised look on the bear's face, Mark buried his face in his fur and began to cry.

Mark's father found them later, both sound asleep in the boulder field. Mark's thin face was grimy and tear-stained. Ben was stretched out beside him, his great head flat on out-stretched paws. Karl Andersen knew that what he hadn't been willing to believe before, he had to believe now. Between the boy and the giant Alaskan brown bear there was indeed a bond, a kind of love that overcame fear and suspicion. 

GENTLE BEN is the warm, dramatic story of how that bond of friendship, trust, and understanding affects the lives of Ben and all the Andersen family.

This is a story, too, of Alaska before statehood, when it was a territory and our last great frontier — and of the salmon industry as it was at that time, its impact on the country and its people. The vastness, the virgin beauty and the primitiveness of the land are an integral part of this book.

From the dust jacket