Once again September rolled around and with it went Jim Curwood to become a member of the junior class at the University. But Jim did not complete his junior year, for Pat Baker, a great newspaperman, wired Jim that he had a job for him and he should come to Detroit at once. So, with his wife and all their baggage, Jim withdrew from the University of Michigan and headed for Detroit ... “land of opportunity.” This move was to change the entire course of James Oliver Curwood’s life.
CHAPTER SEVEN
WITH THE DETROIT NEWS-TRIBUNE
Detroit, the land of opportunity for Jim Curwood. This was the lone thought that raced through the young writer’s mind as the train sped toward the great city. In fact, that was the only thing he could think about. Here he would have the opportunity of writing for some 465,000 individuals every day.
Two days passed after their arrival in Detroit before Jim at last went to see Pat Baker. During that time Jim had once again sat down to another improvised desk, in newly-found quarters, and had begun two new stories. He was not actually writing them now, but only making general outlines which he carefully filed away for future use. Some of his work, however, was awaiting completion and these Jim promptly finished and mailed out to various magazine and newspaper publishers.
Jim’s meeting with Pat Baker was short and to the point. He was put on the pay-roll and assigned to work forthwith.
George Snow, editor of the Sunday edition of the News, asked Jim to write some “feature stuff” for him and Jim promptly complied. Snow complained, however, that Jim’s plots had been written and rewritten a thousand and one times. He wanted to give the readers something new, something with a snap in it. This peeved Jim a great deal and for four successive days he pouted and thought it over seriously. Then he came to the conclusion that if George Snow and Pat Baker wanted something different and unusual, they would most certainly get it.
Jim began wracking his brains for a story with an unusual angle and twist to it. Eventually such a story came to him, and he began receiving larger assignments from the Detroit News-Tribune.
From the very beginning of Jim’s newspaper career with the Detroit paper he had had to start out on small items of interest in order to learn the ropes. That procedure was as usual then as it is now on all newspapers of major importance. Despite the fact that it was one of the customs governing the publication of the News-Tribune, Jim Curwood disliked it very much when he found that he had to cover funerals, fires and auto accidents to start with. All of these were well handled and he received due credit for them. But all the praise and glory Pat Baker could heap upon his shoulders could not make Jim happy, for he was dissatisfied. He even had to handle “obits” and state deaths in the very beginning, and to a writer of any ability at all, this practically is an insult. However, Jim took it like a man and kept his chin high and went on.
Coincident with handling his newspaper work, Jim was writing his own stories and sending them out. He now was writing with the blood of a true adventurer surging through his veins ... he was inspired.