Once a school was built for the community's children, Rawls and his sisters could attend class, but only for a few months during the summer. The family eventually moved to Tahlequah, Oklahoma, where Rawls discovered his first library. As he told Harold Schindler of the
Salt Lake Tribune, "I didn't just read those books, I memorized them."
Reading was a family activity for the Rawls. Using books provided by their grandmother, the children were encouraged to take turns reading aloud, a few pages according to ability. Rawls had trouble identifying with fairy tales, especially those with female heroines, but his mother managed to find a copy of Jack London's The Call of the Wild. After the usual communal reading, she made a present of it to ten-year-old Wilson.
From then on, he knew that he wanted to be a writer. His family life was not especially conducive to this goal--even pencil and paper were extravagances--but Rawls didn't allow the limitations of their poverty to get in his way. His father's adage that "nothing was impossible, as long as you never gave up," became a guiding principle.
This is a free page. This page contains 179 words. This
biography contains 1,513 words (approx. 5 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Wilson Rawls Access Pass.
