Will James (artist)

Canadian American artist and writer (1892–1942)

William Roderick James (June 6, 1892 – September 3, 1942) was a Canadian American artist and writer of the American West. He is known for writing Smoky the Cowhorse, for which he won the 1927 Newbery Medal, and numerous "cowboy" stories for adults and children. His artwork, which predominantly involved cowboy and rodeo scenes, followed "in the tradition of Charles Russell", and much of it was used to illustrate his books. In 1992, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.

James was born Joseph Ernest Nephtali Dufault, in 1892 in Saint Nazaire d'Acton, Quebec, Canada, He accounted for his francophone accent by claiming that after his mother died when he was one (from influenza) and his father when he was four (having been gored by a steer), he was adopted by a fur trader ("old trapper Jean" Beaupré, whom he called "Bopy" since childhood) whose native language was French. Additionally, Beaupré was not fluent in English. James settled near the new Franco Saskatchewan settlement of Val Marie in 1910 and learned to be a western cowboy. He was taught wrangling by local cowboy Pierre Beaupre, and the two built separate homesteads along the Frenchman River in southwest Saskatchewan. James's property later became part of the Walt Larson ranch, which has been folded into the new Grasslands National Park. James migrated to the United States, where he assumed the new name "William Roderick James". He came to Nevada from Montana in 1914. He was arrested there for cattle rustling and was sentenced to twelve to eighteen months in prison, which he served first in Ely, Nevada, and then at the Nevada State Penitentiary at Carson City. While in prison he concentrated on his drawing and produced pictures that the Ely Record commended with the recommendation that "with proper training he would soon be able to do first class work." At the state penitentiary he used his art in connection with his parole application, making a sketch entitled "A Turning Point", with the note: "Have had ample time for serious thought and it is my ambition to follow up on my art." Soon he was in the U. S. Army, serving from 1918 to 1919. It was after his discharge that he began artwork in earnest. He returned to Nevada, arriving in Reno in July in time for the First Annual Nevada Round Up in Reno, for which he illustrated the cover of the program and was paid $50. At the end of the year, through Von Schmidt's connections, James was able to sell two series of sketches to Sunset, a West Coast periodical. They both formed a narrative and contained text written by James; they ran in the January and November issues. James returned to Reno and married the 16 year old Alice Conradt. The couple then travelled first to Kingman, Arizona, then to Santa Fe, New Mexico, near an artists' colony. Ranchers near the colony met James and introduced him to Burton Twitchell, dean of students at Yale University. As a result of the meeting, and with financial assistance by the same ranchers, James enrolled in Yale University the following fall. Alice soon followed but James was ill suited for academics. The couple, with an introduction from Twitchell, travelled to New York City to sell his work. When Life Magazine declined his work, the couple returned to Reno. They soon moved to a cabin built by Alice's father in Washoe Valley. It was there that James first began writing for publication.

In the fall of 1922 James began writing an article on horse bucking. It came to the attention of Max Perkins who believed the writing revealed "authentic American vernacular" and recommended the article for publication in Scribner's Magazine. Scribner's paid $300 for the work ""Bucking Horses and Bucking Horse Riders," together with its illustrations, James's first published story.

James is an uncle to journalist Pierre Dufault and a grand uncle to singer Luce Dufault.