Carol Ryrie Brink Biography

Caddie Woodlawn About the Author

Carol Ryrie Brink was born in Moscow, Idaho, on December 28, 1895.

Her father, Alexander Ryrie, had emigrated from Scotland at the age of 20 and later became the first mayor of the small community of Moscow. Brink's parents died before she was eight years old, and she went to live with her maternal grandmother and an aunt. Brink's childhood was lonely but not unhappy, and she derived much pleasure from her grandmother's stories about growing up on the Wisconsin frontier. These reminiscences later served as the basis for Caddie Woodlawn.

Brink was interested in writing from an early age and published some poetry in small literary magazines while attending school in Idaho and in Oregon. She continued to write as a student at the University of Idaho from 1914 to 1917 and in 1918 received a bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley. That...
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