Gary Paulsen

Gary Paulsen was born on May 17, 1939, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and grew up in difficult circumstances — his father was a military officer often absent overseas, and his childhood was marked by instability, frequent moves, and a troubled home life. Books became his sanctuary; he credits a librarian who gave him a library card and a bag of books as a turning point that set him on the path to becoming a writer. After dropping out of high school, Paulsen led a remarkably varied life that included stints in the Army, work as an engineer, actor, director, farmer, rancher, truck driver, and sailor — experiences that gave him an enormous reservoir of material to draw on when he turned to writing for young people.

Paulsen is best known for his wilderness survival novels, and above all for Hatchet (1987), the story of thirteen-year-old Brian Robeson, who survives alone in the Canadian wilderness after a plane crash with only a hatchet for a tool. The novel’s gripping, spare prose and its meticulous depiction of survival techniques captured the imaginations of millions of young readers and earned a Newbery Honor. Paulsen drew on his own deep experience in wild places — he ran the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in Alaska twice, and his love of the wilderness infuses his writing with an intimacy and authority that readers immediately recognize as genuine. Hatchet spawned four sequels following Brian’s further adventures, and remains among the most popular middle grade novels ever written.

Over a career spanning five decades, Paulsen wrote more than two hundred books for children and young adults — an astonishing output that covered wilderness adventure, historical fiction, humor, and memoir. Other beloved titles include Dogsong, Woodsong, The River, Brian’s Winter, and the comic Harris and Me. He received three Newbery Honor citations over the course of his career, a testament to the consistent quality of his work across decades of prolific output. His autobiographical writing, including Woodsong and My Life in Dog Years, gave readers a window into the adventurous life that fed his fiction.

Paulsen’s writing style is celebrated for its economy, clarity, and immersive quality — he writes action and setting with a precision that puts readers directly inside the experience of his characters. His work has introduced generations of young readers, particularly reluctant readers, to the joy of books and storytelling. Gary Paulsen died on October 13, 2021, leaving behind a legacy of adventure, wilderness, and the enduring belief that every young person deserves a story that makes them feel alive.