James Oliver Curwood

    James Oliver Curwood was a very popular Michigan author who wrote a large number of outdoor adventure novels about "God's Country", which was basically Canada. He was for the coureurs de bois, what Zane Grey was for the cowboys. In the early part of the 20th century, the image that many people worldwide had of Canada, was the one painted in prose by Curwood. This is all summed up in the very long title of a Maclean's profile of Curwood in 1954:  

                  "The Man Who Invented God's Country: Being a True Account
                   of How James Oliver Curwood Gave the World, in 27 Spine-
                   Tingling Novels Devoured by Kings, Presidents and
                   Commoners, The Electrifying But Slightly Inaccurate Idea
                   that CANADA Was and Always Will Be a Heroic Land 
                  Peopled by Stalwart Mounties, Noble Indians,
                  Lonely Loons and Virtuous Maidens!" 
                  by Stephen J. Gamester, Our Intrepid Reporter, 
                  Whose Amazing Correspondence, Begins Overleaf,
                   Maclean's, Feb. 22, 1964.

The Curwood Festival

   I am telling you all of this because Curwood will be honoured again in Owosso, Michigan, which is due west of here, on the weekend of June 2.  He is honoured annually unless germs interfere. To avoid dying, you have been masked up and indoors and are probably dying to get out and go somewhere. I will be your trip advisor on this one and recommend that you enjoy the parades, tours, old homes, and particularly Curwood's castle on the banks of the Shiawassee River. I will provide the pertinent links below and by clicking on the first one, you will learn all you need to know.

The Curwood Collector

   Once again, you are amazed that I know such things and wonder why. This is the case, I admit, of another abandoned project. It relates, oddly enough, to my "Periodical Ramblings" and to those periodicals that are dedicated to one, specific individual. Curwood is such an individual and The Curwood Collector was dedicated just to writing by and about him. When I saw the title, I wondered who this Curwood was and looked him up. He turned out to be almost a neighbour. 

   This all was learned about forty years ago and the reason I am only telling you now is that I just discovered the notes of a trip taken to the Curwood Festival back on a fine summer day in 1981. Apparently I enjoyed it, but I will provide below a reference to an account by a writer more accomplished than I. He enjoyed the Festival in 1992. Before you pack your bags, do note that these endorsements are from the last century, not this one. Things may have changed, but those Pure Michigan ads are always enticing.

Curwood Actually Went to Canada

    He knew about what he wrote about and often spent months alone (or with his attractive wife) in campsites or cabins they constructed. Part of the time, he was even on the Canadian government payroll as a promoter of God's Country. Here are some photos:

  

The author and his first wife on their honeymoon in Ontario, 1909

  Such endeavours were successful, which is how he was able to construct the castle in Owosso.

The Curwood Festival:

    To learn more about the man and the events, see these links.

The Owosso Historical Commission
This site tells the whole story and has great photos in the section about Curwood Castle.
Historic Views of Owosso and Corrunna, Michigan
See this sub-section which contains a short profile, pictures of the castle being constructed, lists of his books and movies and his grave in the Oak Hill Cemetery. 
The Curwood Festival 
This is the official site with a countdown clock telling you how many days before the festival begins. It does not offer much else right now, but more will be added.

Sources:

   For the account of the Festival see: "Why, O Why, O Why O, Do They Ever Leave Owosso?" Thomas Mallon, The American Spectator, June 1992. 
   For a more recent one: Claire Moore, “Author-adventurer’s Castle in Unlikely Place: Owosso,” Spartan News Room, Dec. 11, 2020 - a description of JOC and the town by a reporter who lives there.

More information about his books is provided below.

The Bonus:
   Curwood died in 1927 at a young age. Some think it was from the bite of a spider. Here is what one biography notes. He was returning from Florida during the spring: 

“The route home from by way of Washington was fortunate for Jim. Wearing waders, he’d been hunting water moccasins near Englewood and a snake - or something - had bitten him on the upper thigh. It had been a pricking sensation, like that of a needle, and he’d not thought much about it then, but now it was giving him trouble and he stopped by to see a doctor.” [he stayed five days for treatment - this was early in 1927 - he died in the fall.]

From: Eldridge, Judith A. James Oliver Curwood: God's Country and the Man. Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 1993.

Post Script:

   I never did do anything with old Curwood. I did, however, publish an article about journals like The Curwood Collector and have written about them in MM: "Single Author Journals" Periodical Ramblings (8)

   If you think you would like to give him a shot, all my materials relating to Curwood, the Festival and Owosso are available until Friday which is garbage day here in London and I do need to get rid of some of this detritus. If any of you get an Owosso postcard from me, now you will know why since I still have a few from that trip in 1981.

  As for those other "Abandoned Projects" I mentioned, one was about Charcoal Fueled Automobiles, a minor endeavour, and the other, A Dance to the Music of Time, which simply involved reading rather than writing.

Selected Curwood Books

A full list of his books is found in the Wikipedia entry for James Oliver Curwood. Most of them are now available to read for free. A convenient way to access them

is from the bottom of the Wikipedia entry, under "External Links."

Provided below are those found in the Western Libraries at Western University. Also

provided are some sample reviews from the New York Times.

The Alaskan : A Novel of the North

The Ancient Highway : A Novel of High Hearts and Open Roads

Back to God's Country, and Other Stories

Baree, Son of Kazan.

The Black Hunter; A Novel of Old Quebec.

The Country Beyond : A Romance of the Wilderness

NYT, Aug 6, 1922 "The popularity of James Oliver Curwood is so positive, his novels have such a surprisingly wide sale, that it is of interest to note the ingredients of his most recent book". The sales are surprising for the reviewer because he thinks the ingredients are banal.

The Courage of Captain Plum.

NYT, Nov. 7, 1908

Favourable review. The subject is a breakaway colony of Mormons on Beaver Island in Lake Michigan. "Mr. Curwood is to be congratulated upon having utilized an insignificant crumb of national history for the making of a well-constructed and interesting tale."

The Courage of Marge O'Doone.

NYT, Feb. 24, 1918.

Curwood's picture is provided and he is described as a born narrator and story teller.

The Crippled lady of Peribonka

The Flaming forest : A Novel of the Canadian Northwest

Flower of the North : A Modern Romance

NYT, Mar. 31, 1912.

The title is "A Good Adventure Tale", although the reviewer does complain of some

stale devices.

A Gentleman of Courage

The Gold Hunters

God's Country and the Woman.

NYT, Jan. 17, 1915.

A sole survivor of an expedition discovers a beautiful woman in the far north. Although barely credible, the plot is ingenuous according to the reviewer.

God's Country; The Trail to Happiness

NYT, April 3, 1921.

"It you are a lover of nature, you will enjoy this book..."

The Great Lakes, the Vessels That Plough Them : Their Owners, Their Sailors,

and Their Cargoes; Together With a Brief History of our Inland Seas NYT. June 19, 1909.

The reviewer is very enthusiastic. Although a work of nonfiction, it reads like a novel.

This book is now very expensive on the used book market.

The Grizzly King, A Romance of the Wild. NYT, Sept. 17, 1916. About hunters in the Rockies who learn to care about animals rather than hunt them.

The Honor of the Big Snows

The Hunted Woman

Nomads of the North; A Story of Romance and Adventure Under the Open Stars.

NYT, April 27, 1191.

The adventures is about animals and the reviewer finds it entertaining.

The Plains of Abraham

The River's End; A New Story of God's Country.

NYT, Oct. 12, 1919.

The reviewer thinks this one may have been written in haste and for the movies,

but finds it interesting, if overly sentimental. Good descriptions of the Saskatchewan River.

Steele of the Royal Mounted : A Story of the Great Canadian Northwest

The Valley of Silent Men

NYT, Nov. 7, 1920.

A postive review of "a corking good adventure story." The Wolf Hunters : A Tale of Adventure in the Wilderness

NYT, Dec. 19, 1908. Notes that it is full of adventure and shows real knowledge of the north.