Marian T. Place Papers

Marian Whitinger Templeton was born to Clarence Ray and Lillian R. (Farrell) Templeton in Gary, Indiana on October 19, 1910. She earned her B.S. from the University of Minnesota in 1931 and her B.A. from Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida in 1935. Templeton also completed her Masters of Library Science at the University of Minnesota.

After spending a vacation in Montana, Templeton became so fascinated with the West that she went to work as a reporter for the Glasgow [Montana] Courier. She married Howard Thirloway Place (1912-2002) in Glasgow on January 4, 1936 and the couple had two children, David and Nancy. Marian Place continued to write free-lance feature articles and became interested in writing children's literature when I tried to find good books for my children that would give them a background in Montana history, as well as the authentic feel for this treasured state and its pioneering periods that I discovered that ... there just weren't any. So, in time, I tried writing articles about Montanans and Montana's wonders, and then tried books for teenagers ... As usually happens, one bout of research led to another ... I kept reading and writing.

Place went on to write over 40 books for children and young people, many set in the American West. Her work won a number of awards, including four Golden Spur Awards given by the Western Writers of America for Best Western juvenile novel and Best Western juvenile nonfiction title; the 1977 Garden State Children's Book Award for On the Track of Bigfoot, and the 1982 Mark Twain Award for The Boy Who Saw Bigfoot. She was also nominated for the 1982-83 California Young Reader Medal in the Intermediate Category for The Boy Who Saw Bigfoot.

Place has written under her own name and under two pseudonyms. She recalls that I began writing [about such subjects as] hunting, fishing, Forest Service and other state and federal fish & wildlife, grazing, [and] water projects, to mention only a few. I studied my markets before submitting and observed [that] the kind of ... subjects I was interested in were done by men. So, I chose to use the pen name of Dale [my uncle] and White [a portion of my middle name, Whitinger]. For about 10 years or more I was known as Mr. White. The other pseudonym, R. D. Whitinger, was used briefly only for westerns - i.e. bang-bangs, pulps. I was experimenting with several kinds of writing, and this one was not for me.

In 1962, Howard and Marian Place moved from Montana to Portland, Oregon. Marian Place returned to work as a children's librarian because she just felt like being with children again. They ask the most stimulating questions. The Places wintered in Sun City, Arizona and traveled around the country in a motor home during the summer. Marian Place died in Oregon on April 14, 2006.