A short life of the author
Gary Paulsen (17 May 1939 – 13 October 2021) was an American author of young-adult and children’s fiction who wrote over two hundred books and whose Hatchet (1987) became one of the most widely read and influential young-adult novels of the late twentieth century. His survival fiction — spare, physically precise, and grounded in real wilderness experience — has introduced millions of young readers to the idea that nature is both beautiful and indifferent, and that competence in the wild is a form of self-knowledge.
Life
Paulsen’s childhood was harrowing. He was born in Minneapolis; his father was an alcoholic army officer, and his mother drank heavily. He was essentially raised by relatives and by himself. He ran away from home repeatedly, worked as a farmhand, trapper, and carnival worker, and survived by his wits.
He served in the U.S. Army, worked as a teacher, an electronics engineer, and a satellite tracker before becoming a writer. He lived for extended periods in the Minnesota and Wisconsin woods, running sled dogs, trapping, and hunting. He ran the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race twice (1983, 1985) — a 1,049-mile race across Alaska — and his experience with sled dogs provided the material for some of his best books.
He was a recovering alcoholic who credited the wilderness and the dogs with saving his life. He lived on a houseboat in the Pacific, on ranches in New Mexico, and in the Minnesota woods, moving restlessly throughout his life.
Hatchet (1987)
Paulsen’s most famous novel — a Newbery Honor Book — follows Brian Robeson, a thirteen-year-old boy flying in a small plane to visit his father in the Canadian wilderness when the pilot dies of a heart attack. Brian crashes into a lake and survives with nothing but the hatchet his mother gave him.
The novel tracks Brian’s transformation from a helpless suburban boy into a competent survivor: he learns to make fire, build shelter, catch fish, and read the landscape. The prose is stripped to essentials — Paulsen writes with the same economy that Brian must learn to practise. The novel’s power lies in its physical specificity: every detail of survival — the frustration of trying to start a fire, the taste of raw turtle eggs, the sound of a moose charging — is rendered with the authority of someone who has done these things.
The novel spawned four sequels: The River (1991), Brian’s Winter (1996, an alternate version in which Brian is not rescued), Brian’s Return (1999), and Brian’s Hunt (2003).
Other Notable Works
Dogsong (1985, Newbery Honor) follows a young Inuit boy who undertakes a solo dogsled journey to find his own identity. The Winter Room (1989, Newbery Honor) is a quiet, lyrical novel about a Minnesota farm family.
Woodsong (1990) is Paulsen’s non-fiction account of running sled dogs and preparing for the Iditarod. Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod (1994) is his funniest and most vivid account of the race — a book about exhaustion, terror, and the profound bond between a man and his dogs.
Harris and Me (1993) — a comic novel about a boy sent to live with his wild rural cousins — is Paulsen’s warmest book and a favourite among his adult readers.
Critical Standing
Paulsen is one of the most important young-adult authors of the late twentieth century, and Hatchet is a modern classic of the genre. His work is sometimes dismissed as simple or formulaic, but the simplicity is earned — it reflects both the austerity of survival and the directness of a writer who preferred doing things to talking about them.
Collecting Paulsen
Hatchet (1987, Bradbury Press) in first edition brings $50–$200. Dogsong (1985) and Woodsong (1990) bring $20–$60. Signed copies are available; Paulsen was generous with young readers.