Pinkerton, Kathrene, 1887-1967

Robert E. Pinkerton (1882-1970) and Kathrene Pinkerton (1887-1967) were writers of both fiction and nonfiction.

Robert E. Pinkerton was born March 12, 1882 in Arena, Wisconsin. He attended the University of Wisconsin for two years. He worked as a cub reporter on the Milwaukee Free Press and was later telegraph news editor for The Journal in Milwaukee.

Kathrene Pinkerton was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, June 9 1887. She received her B.A. from the University of Wisconsin, and did graduate work at the Chicago School of Civics and Philanthropy. Her early career was in social work in Chicago and public health in Wisconsin.

The Pinkertons married in 1911. Their first fictive effort a 30,000 word novelette sold to Munsey's Magazine . With the $150,000 earnings they departed for the wilds of Canada, where they built onto a cabin in the bush, eight miles from the village of Atikokan, Ontario. The only means of transport to and from Atikokan were by canoe in the summer and dog sled during the long Canadian winter. Their nonfiction pieces sold to outdoor magazines, totaling for their first two years work $532.00. Their fiction did not sell during this period.

Two years later the Pinkertons came out of the bush for a short while, for the birth of their daughter, Bobs, and returned by dogsled when she was seven weeks old. "For the next four and one half years," wrote Ben Hibbs, then editor of The Country Gentleman, "they sold every story they wrote."

Mrs. Pinkerton died in 1967 and Mr. Pinkerton in 1970.

From the guide to the Robert E. Pinkerton and Kathrene Pinkerton papers, 1911-1967, (Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries)