He received his early education in a one-room schoolhouse where he began writing stories and songs.
He finished his first book shortly after his graduation from high school and then went to work on a newspaper as a columnist and a typesetter.
The book referred to an essay he wrote in 1924 for the St. Joseph Gazette in which he tied with 100 others for third-place to write about a grain of wheat.
[2] There are also materials held at the James C. Kirkpatrick Library at the University of Central Missouri, whose Children's Literature Festival welcomed him as a presenter twenty-two times.
[4] He was the first recipient of the Southern California Council on Children's Literature award for distinguished contribution to the field.