Jim Kjelgaard: "A Master Storyteller"

  “Autobiographical Sketch of James Arthur Kjelgaard”     This sketch was likely written circa 1950/51 and appeared on pages 178 – 179 of The Junior Book of Authors , Revised Second Edition, ed. Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft [the original second edition was published in 1951]

from The Living Wilderness Winter 1947 – 1948 Pages 22 - 23    

1336 N 31st, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was Jim and Edna Kjelgaard’s first home together after their marriage on July 15, 1939. Their only child, Karen, was born while they lived in Milwaukee. In an essay Karen wrote about her father she said, “Looking back, I’d consider it far from Dad’s natural habitat.” But her mother, who preferred Eddy to Edna, was a “city girl” and living in Milwaukee “was one of the compromises of their marriage.” Another compromise Jim made: no dogs were allowed in the house. Karen recalled they always had dogs, “even if they did have to stay outside.” She continued: “The first dog I remember is Mac, a golden cocker spaniel. A few years later, I got Sheila, an Irish Setter shipped to us by Rudd Weatherwax, Lassie’s trainer. We had Sheila some years, and I wish I could say she was Big Red personified, but she wasn’t.” It was in this home that Jim wrote his first young adult novels: Forest Patrol (1941), Rebel Siege (1943), ...