He is known for writing Smoky the Cowhorse, for which he won the 1927 Newbery Medal,[2] and numerous "cowboy" stories for adults and children.

His artwork, which predominantly involved cowboy and rodeo scenes, followed "in the tradition of Charles Russell",[3] and much of it was used to illustrate his books.

[5] He accounted for his francophone accent by claiming that after his mother died when he was one (from influenza) and his father when he was four (having been gored by a steer), he was adopted by a fur trader ("old trapper Jean" Beaupré, whom he called "Bopy" since childhood) whose native language was French.

He was taught wrangling by local cowboy Pierre Beaupre, and the two built separate homesteads along the Frenchman River in southwest Saskatchewan.

[7] While in prison he concentrated on his drawing and produced pictures that the Ely Record commended with the recommendation that "with proper training he would soon be able to do first class work."

"[3] According to cowboy and folksinger Ian Tyson, James traveled to San Francisco to sell sketches and began working as a stuntman in western movies there.

In Reno, James soon teamed up with two men he knew before the war, Fred Conradt and Elmer Freel, to stage "broncobusting" exhibitions.

[3] James described his first interest in drawing as a pastime he took up (with stick in dirt or charcoal on the "rough boards of the bunk-house porch") to alleviate his boredom during the long stretches when his father was away working under a contract to break horses.

He enrolled at the California School of Fine Arts in San Francisco where he took evening classes, while working as a theater ticket-taker by day.

[10] At the end of the year, through Von Schmidt's connections, James was able to sell two series of sketches to Sunset, a West Coast periodical.

It came to the attention of Max Perkins who believed the writing revealed "authentic American vernacular" and recommended the article for publication in Scribner's Magazine.

[1] The largest public collection of James' writings, artwork, and personal effects is preserved at the Yellowstone Art Museum in Billings, Montana.