| Wilson Rawls | |
|---|---|
| Born | September 24, 1913 Scraper, Oklahoma |
| Died | December 16, 1984 (aged 71) |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | American |
| Genres | Children Novels |
Wilson Rawls, born Woodrow Wilson Rawls, (September 24, 1913 – December 16, 1984) was an American writer best known for his books Where the Red Fern Grows and Summer of the Monkeys.
Contents |
Wilson Rawls was born on September 24, 1913, in Scraper, Oklahoma to Minzy and Winnie (Hatfield) Rawls.Woodrow…, 2004 He grew up on a farm in the Ozark Mountains, the setting he described in his novels. Since there were no schools in the area, Rawls’ mother taught Wilson and his sisters how to read and write. Rawls’ grandmother would order books for his mother, and she used these books to teach her children how to read. Their mother would read the books, and then the children would take turns reading the books back to their mother.Holtze, 1989 (Holtze, 1989). In the beginning, Rawls was not interested in reading books because his grandmother always ordered “girl” books such as Little Red Riding Hood and Chicken Little. One day his grandmother ordered a book that changed Rawls’ life. It was a story about a man and a dog. The book was Jack London’s The Call of the Wild. After reading the book, Rawls’ mother gave it to him to keep. It was his first “very own” book, and Rawls carried it with him wherever he went. One day, Rawls got the idea that he wanted to write a story like The Call of the Wild. He was about ten years old when he decided that he wanted to become a writer. Rawls’ father told him that he would need an education to become a writer, so Rawls decided to educate himself by reading various books. He developed an appreciation for different types of writing, and his passion for reading remained with him throughout his life. Rawls started writing by describing the places and surroundings of his home. The first writings by Rawls were scribbled in the dust of the country roads and the sand banks along the river where he lived. Rawls attended junior high in Muskogee until he was forced to leave when the Great Depression came.
When Rawls was about fifteen, the Depression hit the country and his family left Oklahoma, bound for California. However, the family convertible broke down just outside Albuquerque, New Mexico where Rawls’ father found a job. During the 1930s and 1940s, Rawls became a carpenter and traveled to South America, Canada, and Alaska working on construction sites. As he traveled, he began writing and wrote five manuscripts including Where the Red Fern Grows. Due to his lack of a formal education, Rawls’ manuscripts had many spelling and grammar errors. Because of the errors, he did not show the manuscripts to anyone, and kept them hidden in an old trunk in his father’s workshop. In the late 1950s, Rawls was working for a construction company on a guided missile range in the Southwest. The construction company had a contract at the Atomic Energy Commission’s site west of Idaho Falls. Rawls was transferred to this area and lived in a cabin in the Mud Lake area. This is where he met his future wife, [Sophie Ann Styczinski]. Sophie was a budget analyst for the Atomic Energy Commission. The couple was married on August 23, 1958.
Even though Rawls’ novels received much praise, he was perhaps most influential as a motivational speaker. Rawls visited 2,000 schools in twenty-two states before being diagnosed with cancer in 1983. Although Rawls and his wife had no children, he felt that he had many children in his fans. He once commented,
Children are always asking me what advice I can give them on trying to be a writer. I always tell them to do a lot of reading, read and study creative writing, then start writing and keep writing and then they can be a writer too. Someday they will make it if they don’t give up .
He also wrote some of his first stories in the sand which he shared with one of his only friends an old bluetick coon hound which went every where with him.
Where the Red Fern Grows:
School Corporation (1979)
Summer of the Monkeys:
Where the Red Fern Grows (1988)