Sam Keith was an American author (1921–2003). His most notable work was the 1973 best seller One Man's Wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey in which he edited and expanded on the journals of his friend Richard Proenneke's solo experiences in Alaska to create an Alaskan classic. In 2014, Keith's lost manuscript First Wilderness: My Quest in the Territory of Alaska was published.Born in Plainfield, NH in 1921, Sam Keith was the son of a wildlife artist, Merle Vincent Keith.