Will James

Will James was born in Montana on June 6, 1892, while his parents were on their way north from Texas to Canada to start in the cattle business. His mother died when Will was a year old, and when he was four his father was killed handling cattle. The boy was then adopted by a French Canadian trapper and prospector named Jean Beaupré, a man who had had very little "book" education, but who was a past master of all outdoors. It was from old magazines and saddlery catalogues he found in different cow camps that Will acquired most of his education. He drew from the time he first picked up a piece of charcoal from a branding fire.

At fourteen, James was already an expert cowboy, riding with many of the biggest outfits from Canada to Mexico. An accident, in which a bucking horse fell on him, turned him from cow-punching to drawing. He sold his first picture to Sunset for $25, but had no thought then of writing. At the urging of a friend, however, he submitted an article about bucking horses to Scribner's, and it was accepted. At that moment Will James decided that he was an author.

In 1934 he won the Newbery Medal for Smoky. This book was later filmed, as was his autobiography, Lone Cowboy. From the time he started writing in 1924, until his death in Hollywood in 1942, Will James wrote and illustrated constantly. He is perhaps the best-known of all writers about the West, beloved by children and adults alike for his cowboy stories and drawings so full of life and movement. When he died, the world lost a peculiarly typical American author, who wrote with love and honesty about what he knew best.

Photo: https://digital.library.ucla.edu/catalog/ark:/21198/zz002cv5wq

Select publications:

• Cowboys North and South. New York: C. Scribner's. 1924. LCCN 24023378. (short stories, illustrated by the author)
• The Drifting Cowboy. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1925. LCCN 25021273. (short stories, illustrated by the author)
• Smoky the Cowhorse. New York: Scribner's. 1926. ISBN 9780684171456. LCCN 26016523. (Newberry Award-winning novel) (Describes the experiences of Smoky, the mouse-colored horse, from his birth on the range, his capture by humans, through his work in the rodeo and on the ranch, and his eventual old age.)
• Cow Country. New York: Scribner's. 1926. LCCN 27022183. (short stories, illustrated by the author)
• Sand. New York, London: C. Scribner's Sons. 1929. LCCN 29009921. (novel, illustrated by the author)
• Lone Cowboy. New York, London: C. Scribner's Sons. 1930. LCCN 30020657. (autobiography, illustrated by the author)
• Big-Enough. New York, London: C. Scribner's Sons. 1931. LCCN 31028123. (novel, illustrated by the author)
• Sun-Up: The Tales of the Cow Camps. New York, London: C. Scribner's Sons. 1931. LCCN 31026987. (reprints & 7 new short stories, illustrated by the author)
• Uncle Bill: A Tale of Two Kids and a Cowboy. New York, London: C. Scribner's Sons. 1932. (illustrated by the author)
• All in the Day's Riding. New York, London: C. Scribner's Sons. 1933. LCCN 33027058. (short stories, illustrated by the author)
• The Three Mustangers. New York, London: C. Scribner's Sons. 1933. LCCN 33030565. (novel, illustrated by the author)
• Home Ranch. New York, London: C. Scribner's Sons. 1933. LCCN 35027364. (illustrated by the author)
• Young Cowboy. New York, London: C. Scribner's Sons. 1936. LCCN 35027315. (arranged from Big Enough and Sun up, illustrated by the author)
• In the Saddle With Uncle Bill. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1935. LCCN 35004219. (illustrated by the author)
• Scorpion: A Good Bad Horse. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1936. LCCN 36023527. (illustrated by the author)
• Cowboy in the Making. New York, London: C. Scribner's Sons. 1937. (juvenile edition from first chapters of Lone Cowboy, illustrated by the author)
• Flint Spears, Cowboy Rodeo Contestant. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1938. LCCN 38032855. (illustrated with drawings by the author and photographs)
• Look-See With Uncle Bill. New York: C. Scribner's Sons. 1938. LCCN 38006762. (illustrated by the author)
• The Will James Cowboy Book. New York: Scribner. 1938. LCCN 38018107. (collection of juvenile stories, illustrated by the author)
• The Dark Horse. New York, London: C. Scribner's Sons. 1939. LCCN 39032121. (juvenile novel, illustrated by the author)
• Horses I've Known. New York: Scribner. 1940. LCCN 41001024. (juvenile, illustrated by the author)
• My First Horse. New York, London: C. Scribner's Sons. 1940. LCCN 40030566. (juvenile picture book, illustrated by the author)
• The American Cowboy. New York, London: C. Scribner's. 1942. LCCN 42007197. (historical novel, illustrated by the author)
• Will James Book of Cowboy Stories. New York: Scribner's. 1951. (posthumous collection of stories, illustrated by the author)