Jim Kjelgaard was born in New York City but spent his childhood and youth in the Pennsylvania mountains. There he learned to hunt, fish, and handle dogs. He still likes to hunt and has done so in most parts of the United States and Canada, though he has exchanged his rifles and shotguns for cameras. After graduating from high school, he spent two years at Syracuse University Extension. Since then he has held a variety of jobs ranging all the way from trapper to factory superintendent, and has been writing professionally for twenty years. Of some twenty-seven successful books, all but one are for young people—particularly for a sixteen-year-old daughter who, according to Mr. Kjelgaard, is a lot smarter than her daddy.