Gary Paulsen was born on May 17, 1939, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His father served in the military and Paulsen did not meet him until 1946, when the family joined him in the Philippines. Paulsen remembers running wild at age seven, learning about street life firsthand. Eventually, in 1949, he and his parents returned to the United States, moving frequently about the country as his father's postings were changed. He recalls being antisocial and a very poor student until he was a teenager.

He sold newspapers to bar patrons and learned that if he gave them time to have a few drinks, they would pay twenty-five cents instead of ten cents for a paper. One cold day, while waiting for the right time to start selling his papers, he entered a library to get warm. An elderly librarian asked whether he had come for a library card, and Paulsen...