Jacket by Sam Savitt

Young Jase Mason's ambition was to be a wildlife photographer.  To find out whether or not he had real ability, he spent a sum- mer in the wilderness with his dog and his cameras.    It was a summer filled with adventure. Living close to nature, boy and dog both learned a great deal about wilderness dwellers, from rabbits to bears and moose.  They also became unexpectedly involved with game wardens and poachers. Through it all, Jase stubbornly struck to his ambition to become a wildlife camera- man.    Author of a score of fine books about the outdoors, Jim Kjelgaard here com- bines his mastery of open-air adventure with a story of youthful determination and hard work in the face of obstacles.  He also shows how nature maintains its own bal- ance among living things, and how man can maintain or upset that balance by his attitude toward conservation.

Although JIM KJELGAARD pronounces his name in the Danish way, Kyell-gard, his
boyhood was as American as Tom Sawyer's. A great grandson of the man who brought
the family name from Denmark, he was born in New York City in 1910, but grew up on a mountain farm in the famous Black Forest region of Pennsylvania.  Here, surrounded by forest-covered mountains cut by game trails and trout streams, he and his four brothers
lived a rugged, outdoor life, and grew up wise in the ways of the woods.  The year he was graduated from high school, Jim and another boy spent a season on their own in
the wilderness, hunting and trapping.
Jim's greatest interests have always been the out-of-doors, animals, and American
history, and he has written about all three.  He now lives and writes in Arizona.  Between books, he makes as many expeditions to the wilds as possible, and has hunted and fished all over the United States and Canada.
 

from dust jacket of Wildlife Cameraman - 1957, permission to display granted by Holiday House, Inc.

Last updated January 15, 1999