His Website
http://www.randomhouse.com/features/garypaulsen/
Gary Paulsen has received many letters from readers (as many as 200 a day) telling him they felt Brian Robeson's story in Hatchet was left unfinished by his early rescue, before the winter came and made things really tough. They wanted to know what would happen if Brian were not rescued, if he had to survive in the winter. Paulsen says, "Since my life has been one of survival in winter — running two dogsled races, hunting and trapping as a boy and young man the challenge became interesting, and so I researched and wrote Brian's Winter, showing what could and perhaps would have happened had Brian not been rescued."
Paulsen's realization that he would become a writer came suddenly when he was working as a satellite technician for an aerospace firm in California. One night he walked off the job, never to return. He spent the next year in Hollywood as a magazine proofreader, working on his own writing every night. Then he left California and drove to northern Minnesota where he rented a cabin on a lake; by the end of the winter, he had completed his first novel
One of Gary's best-known novels is Tracker. The book is about a teenage boy who must hunt alone for meat for his family because his grandfather has been diagnosed with cancer. The boy's time in the woods takes on the character of a spiritual quest, as the author illustrates the mystical connection between a hunter and his prey.Gary also earned much acclaim for Dogsong which is about a 14-year-old Eskimo boy, who feels hemmed in and slowed down by aspects of modern life, sets out on an dogsled journey that will test his inner resources and help him to discover himself.
Gary Paulsen has created alot of bestselling books including Hatchet,The River,Brian's Winter and many others.
He is one of the most important writers of literature today and three of his novels, Hatchet, Dogsong, and The Winter Room were Newbery Honor Books. His books appear alot on the best books lists of the American Library Association.
Hatchet seen here
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Gary Paulsen
An Author.
By: Jason Carlisle,
Collin Gafford,
Kalee Watring,
David Weatherspoon.
Per.2
American author, is a popular and prolific writer of young adult adventure novels, often set in the wilderness. He was born on May 17, 1939 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Oscar and Eunice Paulsen. Paulsen learned to fend for himself at an early age, because both of his parents were alcoholics, and his mother suffered further from drug dependence and mental illness. As a boy he disliked school and placed more importance on earning money from selling newspapers than he did on his grades. Paulsen was in his early teens when he ducked into a public library one night, seeking shelter from the winter weather. The author recalls that when the librarian gave him a library card with his name on it, he suddenly felt for the first time like he had an identity. Thereafter, he became a voracious reader. Still, his family life did not improve, and Paulsen ran away from home at the age of 14, joining a traveling carnival. In the course of his wanderings, he worked as a farm hand, a construction worker, a truck driver, a sailor, and an engineer, gaining many of the experiences that later informed his writing. He attended Bemidji State University in Minnesota from 1957 to 1958 and the University of Colorado at Boulder in 1976, but he never completed a degree