He survived childhood polio, dropped his first name and became a newspaper reporter, freelance writer, literary editor and editor of children’s books. We learn that Thomas Sterling North was born next to Lake Koshkonong in 1906. In Sterling North and the Story of Rascal, Cohen charmingly relates the author’s life story, which she based on primary research such as interviews with family and friends. Rascal, the “ringtailed wonder,” served as a generational touchstone to many - one final embrace of childhood innocence before the nation plunged into the era of the cultural revolution, Vietnam and Watergate.Ĭhildren either read Rascal, had it read to them, or saw the 1969 Walt Disney movie adaptation starring Billy Mumy (better known for portraying Will Robinson in Lost in Space). North recalled how, as a motherless child with a distant father and a brother fighting in World War I, he befriended and made a pet of a wild raccoon. Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era was published in 1963. It’s aimed at readers in fourth and fifth grades, part of the Badger Biographies series from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. But grownups can learn from it, too. Sterling North and the Story of Rascal, by Sheila Terman Cohen, is actually about the pet’s biographer, who was raised in Edgerton. One of the most famous and beloved Wisconsinites has returned, just in time for the holidays. Sterling North made a pet of a wild raccoon.
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