Author's Name

Wilson Rawls was born on September 24, 1913, in Scrape, Oklahoma. He grew up on a farm in the Ozark Mountains. 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. In the beginning, Rawls was not interested in reading books because his grandmother always ordered Girl which it was like the little red riding hood. 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.

In 1928, his family moved to West Virginia, and Rawls attended junior high until he was forced to leave when the Great Depression came. When Rawls was fifteen, the Great Depression hit the country and his family left Oklahoma, went to California. During the 1930s and 1940s, Rawls became a carpenter and traveled to South America, Canada, and Alaska working on construction sites. When he started to travel, he began writing and wrote five manuscripts including where the red fern grows. Due to his lack of education Rawls’ manuscripts had many spelling and grammar errors. So he never showed anyone.

Just before he got married he made a trip to his parents home and burned all his manuscripts. He was ashamed of his work and decided to forget his dream of becoming a writer. Unable to forget about his dream of becoming a writer, he later told his wife about his burned manuscripts. Sophie encouraged him to rewrite one of his stories. Rawls rewrote where the red fern grows in three weeks and when he was done he gave the manuscript to Sophie for her to read.

The book sold slowly because it was marketed as an adult novel. When students and teachers started to read it, they began a word-of-mouth publicity campaign in the late 60's that boosted sales of the novel. 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. And he died on December 16, 1984 age 71