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JAMES OLIVER CURWOOD: Writer of Northern Fiction
While best remembered for his masterwork KAZAN THE WOLF DOG, Curwood's many other Northwesterns were best sellers in the 1910's and 20's. He travelled by canoe, by snow shoe and by dog sled...
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When James Oliver Curwood (1879-1927) was expelled from school in his birthplace of Owosso, Michigan at age 16, it was a blessing in disguise. It began a wandering life that would eventually take him to the wilds of northern Canada.
First as a reporter, then as a novelist and short story writer, he would spend a lifetime telling of his wilderness travels. He travelled by canoe, by snow shoe and by dog sled, throughout the Peace River country, the Hudson Bay wilderness and the Arctic tundra.
His first published book set in Canada was THE WOLF HUNTERS: A Tale of Adventures in the Northwest, published in 1908. In 1911, he published PHILIP STEELE OF THE ROYAL NORTHWEST MOUNTED POLICE. From then on, the Mounties would appear in a lot of his major works. In 1915, GOD'S COUNTRY -- AND THE WOMAN appeared. He coined the phrase from the English meaning of the Cree Indian name, "Manitoba," not knowing that "God's Country" would soon become a popular phrase for all of the Canadian wilderness -- and beyond.
James Oliver Curwood was an avid hunter of wild game. But as he aged -- especially after a thrilling encounter with a savage grizzly bear that decided not to kill Curwood -- the author chose to shoot his prey with a camera, not a hunting rifle. His encounter with the grizzly became the basis for his book THE BEAR.
While best remembered for his masterwork KAZAN THE WOLF DOG, his many other Northwesterns were best sellers in the 1910's and 20's.
Among his best Mountie novels are PHILIP STEELE OF THE NORTHWEST MOUNTED POLICE, THE HONOR OF THE BIG SNOWS, THE GOLDEN SNARE, THE COUNTRY BEYOND, THE RIVER'S END: A New Story of God's Country, THE VALLEY OF SILENT MEN: A Story of the Three River Country and THE FLAMING FOREST: A Novel of the Canadian Northwest. His collection BACK TO GOD'S COUNTRY contained many Mountie short stories, including THE FIDDLING MAN -- A Story of the North-West Mounted Police.
Northwestern fiction was so popular during the early 20th Century that even some of the best American writers of traditional Westerns added their own yarns to the genre. Writers like Zane Grey. And Max Brand, William MacLeod Raine, Charles Alden Seltzer, Luke Short and -- later -- Giles A Lutz.
The pulp magazines saw the success of a number of writers who specialized in Northwesterns. Writers like Victor Rousseau, James B Hendryx, Harold F Cruickshank, Robert Ormond Case, William Byron Mowery, George Marsh, Harry Sinclair, Leslie McFarlane, Samuel Alexander White, Frank Richardson Pierce and Frederick Nebel. Even Lester Dent, creator of Doc Savage, wrote a series of Northwestern pulp stories featuring characters like Constable Andy Frost and the Silver Corporal.
By 1922, Curwood's writings had made him a very wealthy man. He lived out a youthful fantasy by building the "Curwood Castle" in Ossasso. Built in the style of an 18th Century French chateau, his castle overlooked the Shiawassee River. In one of the home's two large turrets, Curwood built his library and office, where he would do the rest of his writing.
His fiction, Curwood once explained, "is eighty per cent fact so far as country, environment, geography, customs and manners go."
His autobiography is SON OF THE FORESTS.
For more about the great fiction of the Mountioes and the Northwest, see NORTH-WEST MOUNTED POLICE The Canadian Mounties in Kiterature and History...
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