Many were the times that great numbers of small children from Owosso would come and visit with the man from God’s Country. On these visits, Jim always saw to it that there was a treat for them on hand. He would take each in turn upon his knee and always managed to tell wonderful stories. Many residents of Owosso of the present time were among that group. They like to recall those days when they had the honor of sitting upon the knee of one of America’s most famous writers. The citizens of Owosso loved him immensely. For his undying love for humanity and his unquenchable love for all nature had indeed made Jim Curwood a patient, kindly and loving personality.
Many of the questions that Jim received in his morning mail ranged from the “ridiculous to the sublime.” “How shall I begin on my writing career?” “How do I construct or build a plot?” “Ought I to go to college for four years?” “How much education is needed to become a successful writer?” These and countless more just like them were Jim’s daily plight. Perhaps the most frequent question found in those letters was: “Will you sell my story for me?”
Many are the times that Jim’s laughter echoed throughout the walls of Curwood Castle as he pored over the amusing letters.
One of the principal reasons Jim Curwood received so many letters was the desire for the author’s signature. But there were those who, Jim realized, were struggling up that long, hard and difficult trail over which he had traveled, and so to these he always sent forth some kind and encouraging words. For the young man who is embarking upon a literary career, Jim’s advice was always this:
“Hard work and steady work for years, with a fixed purpose is most important.” He also said that an author trains himself for his life’s work just as a farmer learns to use the plough or hoe, or in the same manner that a surgeon studies to use his scalpel.
“Most authors are but ordinary men and women who have trained themselves to earn a livelihood with the pen.”
Perhaps the wisest and most important advice that James Oliver Curwood ever gave anyone was the importance of good physical condition at all times.
Jim’s advice to a young writer with plenty of ambition was to get plenty of sleep and always to arise early. By this he meant about four-thirty or five o’clock in the morning. Then to snap through a vigorous limbering-up exercise, followed by two or three glasses of good, cold water. The latter is a truly important factor. What with going to bed early and rising early of a morning along with the many different type exercises, James Oliver Curwood often voiced his opinion that he himself would live to be one hundred years old.
“After a bath, which includes the use of cold water, I have a breakfast which consists of half a bowl of bran with creamy milk. Dinner is at noon. There are many excellent reasons why a heavy meal should not be eaten at night. My dinner is largely composed of vegetables, though not infrequently we have fish or fowl. Meat once a week is quite enough for a man who wants a long life.
“After breakfast I walk vigorously for ten minutes, and as I have eaten lightly I do not thus disturb my digestive tract. I walk rapidly, for slow walking is no exercise at all, and am at my studio by half-past seven, vibrantly alive and eager to get to work for the sheer pleasure of it. My brain is clear and my body healthy because I have started the day right by taking the opportunity which Nature intended all men should have.”