Wilson Rawls was born September 24, 1913, to Minzy and Winnie Rawls.

He grew up on a small farm near Scraper, Oklahoma. He was introduced to reading and its attendant joys by his mother. She read aloud from books purchased by his grandmother. For a long time he thought that all books, in his words, were "girl books." This mind-set ended when his mother brought home a book that changed his life. It was the story of a man and a dog, Jack London's Call of the Wild. This book changed Rawls' life. After reading it, he carried it around wherever he went, read it aloud to his dog, and considered it to be his first real treasure. Being the treasure that it was sparked an idea in Rawls that he, too, could be a writer. He decided that one day he would write a story...