Sterling North
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Thomas Sterling North was an internationally known author of books for youngsters and adults, including 1963's famous bestselling Rascal. North (who swiftly jettisoned the first name Thomas in favor of Sterling) was born on the second floor of a farmhouse on the shores of Lake Koshkonong, a few miles distant from Edgerton, Wisconsin, in 1906 and died in Morristown, New Jersey, in 1974. Surviving a near-paralyzing struggle with polio in his teens, he grew to young adulthood in the quiet southern Wisconsin village of Edgerton, which North transformed into the "Brailsford Junction" setting of several of his books.
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[edit] Early life and family
North's sister, Jessica Nelson North was also an author, as well as a poet and editor. His other siblings included Herschel, who survived World War I, and Theo, who was the martinet in the family. His maternal grandparents, James Hervey Nelson and Sarah Orelup Nelson, were Wisconsin pioneers. Born in Putnam County, New York, James moved first to near Rochester, New York, then to Menomonee, Wisconsin, now part of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, then homesteaded a farm near present day South Wayne, Wisconsin, which is near Rockford, Illinois. When Sterling North was eleven in 1917, which would have been the year of his maternal grandfather's 100th birthday, several of his uncles wrote extended biographies about their parents and their pioneer farm life. This writing effort was at the same time as the setting of Rascal and may have been an early literary inspiration to North. Sterling's mother died when Sterling was only seven years old.
[edit] Writing career
After attending the University of Chicago (he left without graduating, in 1929), North worked as a reporter (eventually literary editor) for the Chicago Daily News, the New York World-Telegram and the New York Sun before becoming a full-time freelance writer. One of his first books, The Pedro Gorino, published in 1929, was a narrative of the life of Harry Dean, an African-American sea captain. A 1934 North novel, Plowing on Sunday, featured a rare dust jacket illustration by Iowa artist Grant Wood.
North's book Midnight and Jeremiah was made into the Disney movie So Dear to My Heart in 1949. (The movie garnered an Academy Award nomination for best song: "Lavender Blue", sung by Burl Ives). In addition, North wrote Abe Lincoln: Log Cabin to White House, The Wolfing: A Documentary Novel of the 1870s, Racoons are the Brightest People, Hurry Spring, and many other books.
In 1957 he became the general editor of Houghton Mifflin's North Star Books. This firm published biographies of American heroes for young adult readers. Although uncredited, North's beloved bride, Gladys Buchanan North, also contributed to the editing process.
[edit] Rascal
North published his most famous work, Rascal, in 1963. The book is a remembrance of a year in his childhood when he had a pet raccoon named Rascal. It received a Newbery Honor in 1964, a Sequoyah Book Award in 1966, and a Young Reader's Choice Award in 1966. It was made into the Disney movie Rascal in 1969. Additionally, it was made into a 52-episode Japanese anime entitled Araiguma Rasukaru.
Subtitled "a memoir of a better era," North's book is a prose poem to adolescent angst. Rascal chronicles young Sterling's loving, troubled relationship with his father, dreamer David Willard North, and the aching loss represented by the death of his mother, Elizabeth Nelson North. The boy reconnects with society through the unlikely intervention of his pet raccoon, a "ringtailed wonder" charmer that dominates almost every page.
The author's sister, poet and art historian Jessica Nelson North, is one note of early 1900s normalcy in the book. She wasn't particularly pleased with how her brother portrayed her family in Rascal yet was proud of her brother's achievement, regardless.
[edit] Museum
North's childhood home in Edgerton, Wisconsin, was restored in the 1990s by the Sterling North Society to its 1917 appearance and transformed into a museum. A bronze sign in front of the home, marking North's significance in the history of this southern Wisconsin community, was dedicated in 1984. A fundraising effort for this sign was led by the then Janesville Gazette journalist and University of Wisconsin-Whitewater student, Mark Scarborough, who also wrote the text for the sign.
[edit] Centennial commemoration
North's hometown of Edgerton celebrated his 100th birthday during a book festival October 21-22, 2006. Journalist Helen Thomas, children's book author Kevin Henkes, Bill Clinton and Vince Lombardi biographer David Maraniss, Wisconsin writer and volunteer firefighter Michael Perry, and North's daughter and children's book author Arielle North Olson were expected to appear.
