William B. Laughead

author

William B. Laughead

1882–1958

Best known for helping turn Paul Bunyan into a national folk hero, this former lumberman brought campfire exaggeration into print with energy and humor. His pamphlets for the Red River Lumber Company helped shape the version of Bunyan many readers still recognize today.

2 Audiobooks

The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan As Told in the Camps of the White Pine Lumbermen for Generations During Which Time the Loggers Have Pioneered the Way Through the North Woods From Maine to California. Collected from Various Sources and Embellished for Publication

The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan As Told in the Camps of the White Pine Lumbermen for Generations During Which Time the Loggers Have Pioneered the Way Through the North Woods From Maine to California. Collected from Various Sources and Embellished for Publication

by William B. Laughead

The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan As Told in the Camps of the White Pine Lumbermen for Generations During Which Time the Loggers Have Pioneered the Way Through the North Woods from Maine to California; Collected from Various Sources and Embellished for Publication

The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan As Told in the Camps of the White Pine Lumbermen for Generations During Which Time the Loggers Have Pioneered the Way Through the North Woods from Maine to California; Collected from Various Sources and Embellished for Publication

by William B. Laughead

About the author

Born in 1882, William B. Laughead worked as a logger before becoming an advertising manager and illustrator for the Red River Lumber Company. That mix of woods experience and promotional skill gave his writing a lively, insider flavor.

Laughead is remembered chiefly for a series of Red River pamphlets that popularized Paul Bunyan for a mass audience. Drawing on lumber-camp storytelling and adding his own memorable touches, he helped move Bunyan from regional folklore into widely circulated American print culture.

He was also an amateur artist, and his papers are preserved by the Forest History Society. Laughead died in 1958, but his role in shaping the modern image of Paul Bunyan has kept his work firmly tied to the history of American tall tales.