Helen Hamlin was born in 1917 and was raised in the Northern Aroostook County town of Fort Kent, Maine. Growing up in a family of game wardens, she had a deep appreciation and love of both the culture of the North Woods and its inspirational beauty. It was a love affair that lasted her entire life. After teaching school in a remote lumber camp and living deep in the Maine wilderness as the wife of a fish and game warden, Hamlin went on to run the Parmachenee Club, worked as a portrait painter, wrote a best-selling book, served as a French translator in Africa, and traveled the world. She died in 2004.