Forest Patrol

INTRODUCTIONJames Arthur Kjelgaard (1910–1959) was an American author of young adult literature. He was born in New York City, the son of a physician. He was fourth of six children, with four brothers and one sister. The family moved to a 750-acre farm in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania when he was young. Here, the outdoors provided a playground for all the family children. Dave Drakula, writing in Jim Kjelgaard—From the Bigwoods to Hollywood, recounts a time when Kjelgaard and his brother Henry were outside playing when Kjelgaard spotted a bear. Both boys climbed an apple tree for safely. Once the bear was gone, Jim climbed down from the tree, screaming and yelling as he ran into the house. Unfortunately, Henry was too small to get out of the tree himself and remained stuck there. Then the bear came back and stared up at Henry, while his older brother Jim laughed in the distance. This is where Jim Kjelgaard's love of bears comes from; it appears in a number of his books, such as Buckskin Brigade (1947). As a child, young Jim liked to read. Although his family was often low on money, his parents tried to support him and provided as many books as they could. When the family's farming venture failed, the family moved to Galeton, Pennsylvania. It was at that point that Jim began to show an interest in writing. He made a desk out of a box so that he could write poems and stories on a typewriter. In addition, he was becoming an avid hunter, trapper, and fisherman. Unfortunately, he began to have symptoms of epilepsy. His parents brought to Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, where his problem was diagnosed as a tumor. He did not have to have surgery at the time, since he was able to continue on with his life and adventures and show his love for the outdoors. However, the effects would haunt him for the rest of his life. Ultimately, Jim Kjelgaard would publish more than 40 novels, the most famous of which is 1945's Big Red. Big Red sold 225,000 copies by 1956 and was made into a 1962 Walt Disney film of the same name. His books are primarily about dogs and wild animals, often with animal protagonists and told from the animal's point of view. He also wrote short fiction for several magazines, including The Saturday Evening Post, Argosy, and Adventure. After suffering for years from chronic pain and depression, he committed suicide in 1959 at the age of 48. —Karl Wurf Rockville, Maryland