A shorter edited version of this biography appears in the book.

James W. Johnson, also known as J.W., -- just like the two letters,-- wrote Western Stories not about the good old West or the heroes later depicted in the movies. He wrote about the people and stories he grew up knowing. To him, Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hichcock, and many others were the men keeping the streets safe. It was only natural, later in his life, when he decided to write, that he turn to what he knew best; the west he grew up in, and where he could still get reliable verbal histories.

Born February 2, 1885 in Huntington Utah, J.W. was the oldest of five children of James P. Johnson and his wife Jane Leonard. Not much history remains of his parents other than his father is thought to have been a carpenter who instilled the concept of "getting it right" into all of his children. James was naturally bright and quickly advanced from Eighth Grade directly to Brigham Young Academy (BYA). Being old enough to strike out on his own, like Zane Grey and other Western Authors, he learned he needed to be a jack of many trades to survive life.

He traveled to Holland where he studied classical painting at the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam. While there, the poetic muse struck him during a walk through the Queen’s Wood, and he composed an idyll praising the beauty of those woods. The poem was later read at his funeral, but has unfortunately since been lost. Several of his paintings survive to this day, with a few in family hands. His studies in art would later allow him to interact with other contemporary famous Western artists like LD Cram. (LD was himself an interesting character from the West. His first name is not initials, but was the cattle brand that was also the name of the ranch where he was raised!)

When he returned from Holland, J.W. resumed his studies at the newly renamed Brigham Young University, (BYU), where he finished his degree in Art and Music. He quickly married his childhood sweetheart, who had waited for him. He took up teaching English, music & art at Castle Dale Academy in Castle Dale, Utah. He soon became the director of English and Music in the Provo, Utah, city schools.

The death of his wife and child during childbirth hit his emotions hard, and prompted a move to Arizona where he became alternately a newspaper owner, an owner of a general store, a chiropractor, and a lawyer. He remained passionate to his avocation, painting. His paintings of Arizona Indian dwellings and villages still survive.

While in Arizona, J.W. contracted the Spanish flu. This was a disease greatly feared at the time, since millions of people around the world died from its pestilence.

Recovery was bittersweet, for the Catholic Priest who attended him died of that same flu and his friends in town shunned him for fear of dying from infection. He traded his newspaper for a general store and while learning how to run the establishment learned not only how to smoke a cigar like a politician, but also how to trace down the facts which would go into his stories and paintings. He discovered himself on the road increasingly, traveling to make sales for his own general store.

He soon remarried. Although they had Billy, Bernard, Gene, and Virginia together, they found themselves, like many other couples simply growing in different directions. Eventually his wife and children stayed in Utah, while J.W. wound his way to Denver.

While there, he was introduced to Louise Chidester, who was working for the Union Pacific Dining Car and Hotel Department based in Ogden, Utah. She made frequent trips on the railroad in connection with her work, and it seemed natural for J.W. to travel to Ogden to visit her. A few visits later, and they were married in Ogden.

The honeymoon pair decided to buy a car—the best 1925 had to offer, and they were off to California. A leisurely drive up the coast, and the pair ended up in Portland. Ever an entrepreneur, J.W. convinced Louise that here was the land of opportunity. Louise (going by the name of “Madame Louise”) then opened a beauty shop on the second floor of Meyer and Frank’s department store in downtown Portland. She was proud of the fact to her dying day that she imported and used the first electric permanent wave machine west of the Mississippi. During this time, they lived in Vancouver, Washington, across the river, and commuted to work by streetcar each day.

J.W. spent most of his time looking into the types of opportunities that served him well in Arizona, but found that Oregon made it much more difficult for the average man to make a buck than Arizona did. He tried to become a chiropractor, only to discover that Oregon wanted him to study in an Oregon school before granting him a license. An attempt to found a Savings and Loan Association met with dark-suited men who suggested anonymously that, if he preferred to be in good health, he better realize that Portland had enough Savings and Loans.

The result was that the lovers split up, Louise remaining in Portland while J.W. started traveling again, selling breeding pairs of silver foxes. The lovers met every weekend in Pendleton for a few stolen moments of happiness. (Louise’s rail pass was still good, and she traveled by train.) Louise’s father had been a circuit judge, and when she graduated from high school she had worked as a full-time court reporter for her dad. This served her in good stead in Portland, where she served as a court reporter for a group of Congressmen who were investigating corruption and fraud as well as boot-legging in Portland.

As he had done in Arizona, J.W. worked at a number of activities at one time, but when economic conditions began to turn down, the couple moved to Boise where they founded “Madame Louise’s College of Beauty Culture.” During their stay in Boise, they lobbied the legislature and manage to get the first licensing law in Idaho passed for beauty shops and cosmetologists.

J.W. and a partner went prospecting during this period, and staked a gold mining claim on the Boise River above the site of Arrowrock Dam. They worked the claim using hydraulic giants for one season, and then cleaned up the sluice boxes. During the clean-up, J.W. was exposed to mercury vapor and became violently ill. After he recovered, he discovered that the mine foreman and the gold had both disappeared.

The downturn in economic conditions, coupled with the loss of the gold meant another move in 1929, this time to Emmett, Idaho, billed as “The Valley of Plenty.” The family had grown to three with the birth in 1926 of their son, James Robert. The move also saw the birth of “Better Beauty Shop” in Emmett, owned and operated by Louise until her death in 1980.

J.W., ever the carpenter’s son, built two rental houses in Emmett, and finished them just in time for the depression to hit Emmett full tilt. The lumber company foreclosed on both houses. J.W. could not find a job even picking fruit because he was over 40 years old. The family moved to the room back of the beauty shop, and writing became J.W.’s vocation.

The family lived there until 1937, when the beauty shop’s building burned down. J.W. had been building a home for them a few dollars at a time on a small lot sold to him for next to nothing by a writing buddy. Louise, J.W., and Jimmy moved in with the clothes on their backs even though the building was not yet done. The home was completed slowly with the help of J.W.’s father, who had come to visit before the fire.

His Arizona work as a lawyer served him in good stead during this time. He became a member of the defense team in the murder trial of John McClurg, accused of killing his pregnant wife by burning her up in their car. McClurg was found guilty, but J.W. worked diligently to help McClurg’s widowed and penniless mother get clemency for her son. J.W. was successful in getting the death sentence commuted to life imprisonment, but never succeeded in getting a parole or pardon for her son. His work may have helped him get elected to one term as a Gem County Justice of the Peace in 1935.

J.W. was a political independent and an avowed liberal. He loved to hunt and fish and to talk writing with his buddies.

J.W. became a prolific writer of pulp westerns from his first sale of "When Diablo Mendez Speaks" to the early Westerner Magazine. He quickly had constant requests from several western magazines to write for them and it provided a much-needed boost to their income. J.W. never stopped being a practical joker, often charging people who insisted he tell their fortunes by selling the fortune to them under the name "I Will FleeCu, Crystal Ball Specialist" He also gained a reputation as a psychologist and advisor, helping many people with their personal problems over the years.

Back during 1929, he started near full time work on The Bitterroot Trail and spent all the extra available time from other activities, the next six years of his life researching and writing this novel. Once it was published, the Yale Manuscript Library asked for the manuscript and all the research notes. These were carefully boxed up and sent off. Copies of the Caxton printing from 1935 remain in great demand at rare bookstores around the USA. Moreover, it is one of the books reported to be kept in the Jefferson Reading Room at the Library of Congress.

J.W. kept on with his painting, but never wrote another novel. He began to investigate meta-physics and religion instead, continuing until his death in November, 1957.

James R. Johnson, May 2007

Michael D. Johnson, May 2007