Remembering Gary Paulsen, 1939 - 2021

The literary world lost one of their best on October 13 when Gary Paulsen passed away at his home in New Mexico.

Photo: Brian Adams for the New York Times

Paulsen wrote around 200 books and was a Newbury Honor recipient for three of his books: Hatchet, Dogsong, and The Winter Room. While many of his books were realistic fiction with themes of nature and survival, he also wrote science fiction (like The Transall Saga), historical fiction (like Soldier's Heart and The Woods Runner), and memoir (like Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books). 

Paulsen also had comic books, like Harris & Me and The Schernoff Discoveries, both stories loosely based on his time as a child--Harrie & Me as a boy visiting relatives in Minnesota and as a freshman in high school in The Schernoff Discoveries.

Paulsen's most recent book was a memoir titled Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood. According to Macmillan Publishers, ". . . beloved author Gary Paulsen portrays a series of life-altering moments from his turbulent childhood as his own original survival story. If not for his summer escape from a shockingly neglectful Chicago upbringing to a North Woods homestead at age five, there never would have been a Hatchet. Without the encouragement of the librarian who handed him his first book at age thirteen, he may never have become a reader. And without his desperate teenage enlistment in the Army, he would not have discovered his true calling as a storyteller."

You can watch the book trailer for Gone to the Woods, as well as other trailers for some of Paulsen's other books, from the playlist below:

If you're looking for a Paulsen book to reread or are curious to try one of his many titles, stop by the library! 

Information for this post taken from:

“Gone to the Woods.” Macmillan, 20 July 2021, us.macmillan.com/books/9780374

Risen, Clay. “Gary Paulsen, Author of Young-Adult Adventures, Dies at 82.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 15 Oct. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/10/14/books/gary-paulsen-dead.html.