Will James (artist)

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For other people named Will James see Will James (disambiguation)

Will James (1892-1942), artist and writer of the American West, was born Joseph Ernest Nephtali Dufault, June 6, 1892 in Saint-Nazaire-d'Acton, Quebec, Canada. It was during his creative years everyone grew to know him as Will James.

His early years were shared with his family. He started drawing at the age of four on the kitchen floor. At a young age he traveled to the United States with a new name, William Roderick James.

During the next several years, he drifted and worked at several jobs. He was briefly jailed in Carson City, Nevada, for cattle rustling and took care of the prison's horses during his sentence. He then worked as a stuntman in movies and served in the U. S. Army from 1918-1919. He began selling his sketches. He was a horse wrangle for the First Annual Nevada round-Up in Reno in July 1919. He married Alice Conradt, a native of Reno, Nevada, in 1920 and sold his first writing, Bucking Horse Riders, in 1922. The sale of several short stories and books followed, enabling him and his wife to buy a small ranch in Washoe Valley, Nevada, where he wrote his most famous book, Smoky the Cow Horse. It was published in 1926 and won the Newbery Medal for children's literature in 1927. Several film adaptations were made of the book, with James narrating the 1933 film. His fictionalized autobiography, Lone Cowboy, was written in 1930 and was a bestselling Book-of-the-Month Club selection. He wrote his last book, The American Cowboy, in 1942. In all, he wrote and illustrated 23 books.

His later years were spent on his ranch at Pryor Creek, Montana and at his Billings, Montana home on Smoky Lane. Will witnessed movies made from his books and his fame grew. He died in 1942.

The largest public collection of James' writings, artwork, and personal effects is at the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, Montana.

James was inducted into the Nevada Writers Hall of Fame in 1991.