Edmund Christopherson Papers, 1903-1974

Edmund Christopherson was born in Ohio in 1918. He graduated from Case Western Reserve University in 1940. During college he became a Quaker. He refused to enter war-industry work and worked for Arthur E. Morgan and helped to set up the Celo Community in North Carolina. He was drafted in 1943, obtained conscientious objector status, and became part of the Civilian Public Service (CPS). He moved to Montana after serving as a smokejumper for the U.S. Forest Service in the early 1940s, and made Missoula his headquarters for his free-lance writing career.

He travelled extensively in the U.S. and abroad to research his articles, which were published in a variety of newspapers and magazines, including The Saturday Evening Post, Holiday, Outdoor Life, the Reader's Digest, and the New York Times. He covered a whole range of subjects in the Northwest, including travel, ecology, wildlife, and politics. He wrote and published five books under his Earthquake Press label. He campaigned unsuccessfully for the Montana House of Representatives from Missoula in 1964 and 1966.

He married Joan Christopherson and raised four children with her: Jan, Ann, Jean, and Ian. Edmund Christopherson died from injuries sustained in an accident while swimming off Rio de Janiero, Brazil, in 1974.