Paul Hutchens
Paul Hutchens (born April 7, 1902 in Thorntown , Indiana , † January 23, 1977 in Colorado Springs , Colorado ) was an American traveling preacher and author . He wrote 65 mostly Christian books for adults and children. His best-known work is the 36-volume children's book series Sugar Creek Gang .
Life
Hutchens grew up with two sisters and six brothers on a farm in Sugar Creek, Boone County, Indiana near Thorntown. He graduated from the college of the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago and worked first as a Protestant, then as a Baptist traveling preacher.
With his wife Jane Freerks, who later accompanied him and with whom he also played in public, he had a daughter named Pauline.
After contracting tuberculosis , he began writing the stories of the Sugar Creek Gang . The gang members in the books were inspired by his brothers.
Paul Hutchens died in 1977; a year later his wife.
Sugar Creek Gang
The 36-part children's book series was published between 1939 and 1970 and was translated in parts into different languages, including a. Translated into Norwegian, Korean, Hebrew, French and German. In Germany, the series initially appeared with the addition of the Zuckerbach Gang , but later often without this name and only with the name of the episode. After his death, his daughter Pauline continued the series, slightly changed.
From the 1940s onwards, Hutchens presented his books on radio programs. In the 1970s and 1980s, a radio series was released under the name Adventures in Drama , which was underlaid with music and sounds and was later published on cassettes and CDs.
Five of his books were filmed for television in 2004/2005. The first film adaptation, Sugar Creek Gang: Swamp Robber , was named best children's film at the 2005 Canadian Creation Arts Festival . The low-budget productions were shot in northern Georgia.
The stories are originally about a gang of seven Christian boys (Bill, Poetry, Dragonfly, Little Jim, Circus, Big Jim and Tom Till) who go on various adventures in Sugar Creek. They are told in retrospect by the 10-year-old, red-haired Bill Collins.
In the films, the boy "Circus" was replaced by a girl of the same name. In the new book series, the gang consists of three boys and two girls. In the German translation (published by Schulte & Gerth since 1971 ) the gang members sometimes have normal names like Willi and Jürgen, sometimes names like Fäßchen, Längen, Schreihals and Dichterling.
A German 24-part Wild West radio play series by Hanno Herzler , which was published by the same publisher from 1995, is also based on the Zuckerbach gang.
Other works
Hutchens also wrote the three-part youth book series Jeanie , 21 books for adults, three music books, a collection of poems and an autobiography.
Web links
- http://www.sugarcreekgang.info/
- Swamp Robber in the Internet Movie Database (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hutchens, Paul |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American traveling preacher and author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 7, 1902 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Thorntown , Indiana |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 23, 1977 |
| Place of death | Colorado Springs , Colorado |