Born in England in the 1870s, Olaf Baker moved to the United States in 1902 and traveled for many years throughout the West, chiefly in the territory of the Blackfoot Indians. Inspired by the wilderness, he wrote a series of popular novels, including Shasta of the Wolves, Thunder Boy, and Dusty Star.
Stephen Gammell has illustrated nearly sixty children's books since his first, A Nutty Business by Ida Chittum, in 1973. He has won the Caldecott Medal (for Song and Dance Man by Karen Ackerman) and has been awarded a Caldecott Honor (for Where the Buffaloes Begin by Olaf Baker). Gammell is particularly well known for the surreal, unsettling illustrations he provided for Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, a series of short horror stories by Alvin Schwartz. He and his wife, photographer Linda Gammell, live in St. Paul, Minnesota.