About+the+Author

Gary Paulsen



Gary Paulsen entered the field of publishing in an unusual way: he created an exaggerated resume and got a job editing a Hollywood magazine. He new employer soon realized that Paulsen did not know the first thing about editing. Paulsen was willing to learn, however, so he was trained for the position. Paulsen remembers those years of working as an editor as the most valuable training he ever had. With this unusual start in the early 1960s, Paulsen began his writing career. From 1966 to 1976, Paulsen published nearly forty books about two hundred short stories and magazine articles. His long list of publications includes fiction and nonfiction, and he has written for both children and adults. His novels and stories have been translated into as many as eleven other languages.

In 1977 Paulsen took a break from writing, though not by choice. He had to respond to a lawsuit that was brought against him for __Winterkill__, a novel published in 1977. He won the case, but his enthusiasm for writing had disappeared. His next job was trapping animals for the state of Minnesota. He was responsible for checking sixty miles of trap lines on foot, on skis, and by dogsled.

Paulsen enjoyed working with sled dogs in Minnesota. After learning about the Iditarod, a rugged, twelve-hundred-mile dogsled race in Alaska, Paulsen was eager to try it. He put together a team, gathered resources, and entered the race twice, in 1983 and 1985. He calls the Iditarod "a mind-boggling experience." Inspired by the race, Paulsen began writing again. Since the mid-1980s, Paulsen has published several novels that stem from his experience working with sled dogs and trapping animals.

Some of Paulsen's books are influenced by his childhood experiences. Paulsen was born in 1939 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father was a career army officer, and his mother worked in a factory during World War II. As a young child, Paulsen spent much of his time with a grandmother and several aunts. In 1946 Paulsen and his mother moved to the Philippines, where his father joined them. Paulsen, who was seven years old, was meeting his father for the first time.

Returning to the United Stated three years later, the family moved frequently. Paulsen never spent more than five months in any one school. At times he lived with relatives.

Paulsen fondly recalls one particular childhood experience. When he entered a library one day to escape the cold, a friendly librarian offered him a library card and suggested books for him to read. Paulsen read them as fast as he could. He remembers this as a time when the whole world opened up to him.

After two years of college and four years in the army, Paulsen trained to become a field engineer. He worked for two large aerospace corporations. It was during this period that he decided to become a writer