[1] Surviving a near-paralyzing struggle with polio in his teens, he grew to young adulthood in the quiet southern Wisconsin village of Edgerton, which North transformed into the "Brailsford Junction" setting of several of his books.
[2] When Sterling North was 11 (in 1917, which would have been the year of his maternal grandfather's 100th birthday), several of his uncles wrote extended biographies about their parents and their pioneer farm life.
[1] In 1940, in his position as Chicago Daily News literary editor, North was one of the first public figures to denounce the newly popular medium of comic books.
[3] These charges were echoed over the following 15 years by other public figures like J. Edgar Hoover, John Mason Brown, and most notably Fredric Wertham, until Congressional hearings led to the mid-1950s self-censorship and rapid shrinkage of the comics industry.
In addition, North wrote Abe Lincoln: Log Cabin to White House, The Wolfling: A Documentary Novel of the Eighteen-Seventies, Raccoons are the Brightest People, Hurry Spring, and many other books.
Hallmarks of the style seen in this house are the complex roof, bay windows, the asymmetric front porch decorated with spindle work, and the shingles in the gable ends.
By 1918, when Sterling was twelve, he and his father were living in this house at 409 W. Rollin St., and the stage was set for many of the situations that he would eventually form into the book Rascal.
A bronze sign in front of the home, marking North's significance in the history of this southern Wisconsin community, was dedicated in October 1984.
Money for the sign was donated by the school children of Rock County, the Edgerton Area Chamber of Commerce, and friends of Sterling North.
Journalist Helen Thomas, children's book author Kevin Henkes, Bill Clinton and Vince Lombardi biographer David Maraniss, Wisconsin writer and volunteer firefighter Michael Perry, and North's daughter and children's book author Arielle North Olson appeared.