Sterling North Archives
Sterling North made a pet of a wild raccoon.
One of the most famous and beloved Wisconsinites has returned, just in time for the holidays.
He is a raccoon, and his name is Rascal.
Sterling North and the Story of Rascal, by Sheila Terman Cohen, is actually about the pet’s biographer, who was raised in Edgerton. It’s aimed at readers in fourth and fifth grades, part of the Badger Biographies series from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. But grownups can learn from it, too.
Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era was published in 1963. North recalled how, as a motherless child with a distant father and a brother fighting in World War I, he befriended and made a pet of a wild raccoon. Rascal, the “ringtailed wonder,” served as a generational touchstone to many — one final embrace of childhood innocence before the nation plunged into the era of the cultural revolution, Vietnam and Watergate.
Children either read Rascal, had it read to them, or saw the 1969 Walt Disney movie adaptation starring Billy Mumy (better known for portraying Will Robinson in Lost in Space).
In Sterling North and the Story of Rascal, Cohen charmingly relates the author’s life story, which she based on primary research such as interviews with family and friends. We learn that Thomas Sterling North was born next to Lake Koshkonong in 1906. He survived childhood polio, dropped his first name and became a newspaper reporter, freelance writer, literary editor and editor of children’s books. He died in 1974.
Animal friendships were a recurring theme for North. In 1943, long before Rascal, he wrote Midnight and Jeremiah, the tale of a lad and his mischievous lamb. Six years later, Disney made it into a film titled So Dear to My Heart.
But it will always be the raccoon story for which North is remembered.
Sterling North and the Story of Rascal is an excellent read about a significant Wisconsin figure. I wish Cohen would write a longer version for adults.
