Finger, Charles Joseph (1869?-1941), an American adventure writer, won the 1925 Newbery Medal for his children’s book Tales from Silver Lands (1924). This work is a retelling of 19 fairy tales from the Indians of South America.
Finger’s colorful adventures as a young man furnished him with rich background material for the 35 books he wrote during his life. His fiction includes Courageous Companions (1929), A Dog at His Heel (1936), and Give a Man a Horse (1938). He also wrote Seven Horizons (1930), an autobiography.
Finger left home when he was 16. He roamed Africa, Alaska, and the Antarctic, and explored much of the United States. He spent 10 years in South America, hunting gold, herding sheep, and living with Indians, sailors, miners, and gauchos (cowboys). When he was past 50, he bought a farm in the Ozark hills of Arkansas and began to write stories.
Finger was born in Willesden, England. He studied in England and Germany. Finger became a United States citizen in 1896. He died on Jan. 7, 1941.
