Career
Born in New York City, New York, Jim Kjelgaard is the author of more than forty novels, the most famous of which is 1945"s Big Red. lieutenant sold 225,000 copies by 1956 and was made into a 1962 Walt Disney film with the same title, Big Red. Kjelgaard also wrote short fiction for several magazines, including The Saturday Evening Post, Argosy, and Adventure.
Jim Kjelgaard committed suicide in Phoenix, Arizona, in 1959, after suffering for several years from chronic pain and depression.