author
1882–1958
Best known for helping turn Paul Bunyan into a household name, this former logger brought campfire folklore into print with a mix of salesmanship, humor, and lively illustration. His work helped shape the giant lumberjack image that generations of readers came to know.
by William B. Laughead
by William B. Laughead
William B. Laughead was an American logger, advertising manager, amateur artist, and writer whose lasting place in literary history comes from popularizing Paul Bunyan. Sources from the Forest History Society describe him as a Red River Lumber Company advertising man whose pamphlets introduced the legendary lumberjack to a wide popular audience.
Born in Xenia, Ohio, in 1882, Laughead left school as a teenager and went into lumber work. Later accounts connect those years in camps and timber country to the voice and setting of his Bunyan tales, which drew on stories already circulating among lumbermen before he refashioned them for print.
His best-known work is The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan, first published in the 1920s and later reissued. More than simply retelling folk material, Laughead helped define the modern popular image of Paul Bunyan through promotional booklets, storytelling, and drawings for Red River Lumber Company. I couldn’t confirm a reliable portrait image from a Wikipedia page for him, so no profile image is included.