The Grizzly King, James Oliver Curwood
The Grizzly King, James Oliver Curwood
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

The Grizzly King

Author: James Oliver Curwood

Narrator: Jack Sondericker

Unabridged: 4 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/03/2013

Categories: Fiction, Classic


Synopsis

Here is a wonderful adventure about a giant grizzly and an orphaned cub. The story unfolds in the Canadian Rockies back near the turn of the century. Wounded and chased persistently by hunters, the giant grizzly continually eludes them. The hunters show

About James Oliver Curwood

James Oliver Curwood (1878-1927) was born in Owosso, Michigan, in 1878, where he lived for most of his life. His father was a cobbler and owned a small shop, but this failed when James was six years old. For the next seven years the family lived on a remote farm, and James's job was to pick up stones. Later in life he pointed to these rough years as having helped to build his character.

Despite being expelled from high school in the tenth grade, Curwood passed the entrance exams to the University of Michigan, where he studied journalism. Two years later, in 1900, he left the university and married Cora Leon Johnson. This was also the year he sold his first story, "Across the Range," for five dollars. He went to work for the Detroit News-Tribune covering funerals and for a pharmaceutical company until he was able to support himself through his writing. In 1909 Curwood divorced Cora and married Ethel Greenwood. That was also the year he took his first trip into the Canadian Northwest and thereafter would spend up to six months each year in the arctic wilderness. This was where he set some of his most successful books.

While on a hunting trip in the Rockies, Curwood stalked a bear for three weeks. As he moved in for the kill, he slipped and broke his gun. The bear reared up over Curwood, then left him unharmed. That day Curwood turned away from hunting and became an ardent conservationist.

By 1919, when he wrote The River's End, Curwood was one of the most successful writers in North America. He eventually earned over $1,000,000, which enabled him to build a Norman chateau along the banks of the Shiawassee River, now the official James Curwood Museum. Despite being obsessed with his health, and declaring that he would "live to be 100," he died of blood poisoning at age 49, in 1927.

Over his lifetime, Curwood wrote over 30 books. Among them were The Grizzly King, The Wolf Hunters, The Alaskan, The Country Beyond, and Son of the Forests.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Alejandro on December 07, 2020

A este libro llegué por Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente, bueno, más bien por lo que dijo su hija Odile en una entrevista hace unos meses por el 40 aniversario de la muerte de su padre, en el que recordaba que él de jovencito era un ávido lector de las diferentes obras de Curwood y que fue una de las gr......more

Goodreads review by Charles on November 01, 2016

I absolutely loved this. I had never read anything by Curwood before but this won't be the last. Curwood died in 1927 and wrote quite a few books about nature and animals. From what I've learned, he was--in his day--thought of as being along the lines of a Jack London. This book certainly showed muc......more

Goodreads review by Rodrigo on May 29, 2021

Lo lei hace mucho tiempo en el colegio y recuerdo que me gusto mucho, una historia agridulce la del osezno......more

Goodreads review by Chantal on February 08, 2023

Again at times a very sad story, but it kept my attention and I wanted to read how this story would end. Great and easy story to read.......more

Goodreads review by Jennifer on December 31, 2019

I thought it was a lovely book giving you viewpoints of man, bear, cub, and the surrounding nature. A book written over a hundred years ago is still relevant today.......more