About James Oliver Curwood
James Oliver Curwood (1878–1927) was born in Owosso, Michigan, where he
lived for most of his life. He studied journalism at the University of Michigan, and in 1900 he left the university and
married Cora Leon Johnson. This was also the year he sold his first
story, “Across the Range,” for five dollars. He went to work for the Detroit News-Tribune
covering funerals and for a pharmaceutical company until he was able to
support himself through his writing. In 1909 Curwood divorced Cora and
married Ethel Greenwood. That was also the year he took his first trip
into the Canadian Northwest and thereafter would spend up to six months
each year in the arctic wilderness. This was where he set some of his
most successful books. Over his lifetime, Curwood wrote over thirty books. Among them were The Grizzly King, The Wolf Hunters, The Alaskan, The Country Beyond, and Son of the Forests.