“James Oliver Curwood is a writing man because he has something to say, and he writes only of those things which he knows best. His novels are set in the far North region of Canada because he not only knows but actually loves that country.”
That Curwood’s God is Nature and that in his books he preaches constantly the beauty and glory of his creed the reading public quite generally knows. He is a writing man because he has something important to talk about.
James Oliver Curwood loved the North as few men have ever loved a country in which they have not been registered citizens. Even long before he was employed by the Canadian government as an exploratory writer on the Northlands, Jim had already grown to love that land, for many trips already lay behind him. He knew many of the Mounties, he had trapped and prospected in the Yukon and in and around Hudson’s Bay; he knew his North as few men ever could know it. But the element which made him so popular was that he loved the country about which he wrote. Ray Long, then editor of Redbook Magazine, knew the author quite well and told many wonderful things about him.
“When Jim Curwood described the coming of spring in the northern mountains, he saw and wrote of beauty which brought a lump to my throat. He wrote melodrama, yes; there was action and vigor and at times brutality in his stories; he was far from being the greatest psychologist who ever wrote: but he was sincere, he loved nature, he made you love nature. And that’s not a bad epitaph for a writer, is it?”
For two full years Curwood was an employee of the Dominion and it was during those years that he gathered much of the material about which he has written. Also, during that time, Jim lived among the Eskimos and the Indians. Few people, if any, realize that the trips before and after his government contract had expired were entirely at his own expense, so sincere was he about that which he wrote. Many were the times that Jim formed his own expeditions and went farther north than most men have ever dared penetrate, save those internationally famous explorers who have reached and discovered the North Pole.
He has actually been up as far as the Arctic sea and has oft times gone out upon it in search of adventure and material for his stories. He has braved every type of danger and adventure practically known to mankind, as far as the North goes, to bring back thrill-packed stories for the world at large to enjoy. A. J. Donovan, of Owosso, who was a school-mate of Jim’s, often said this of him in later life:
“Jim passed on just when he was doing his home town, his state and his country the most good.”
By that Mr. Donovan meant that Jim Curwood’s work in conservation was at last being heeded and that wild life was beginning to be conserved. He also had in mind that Jim was doing his people more good by his inspirational and courageous writings than few men of his time have ever done.
Many, many times Jim had openly declared that he simply could not write in his fine, new home.
“I just cannot write in my own home. Something is missing there that gives me the inspiration that I do so need.”