Chet Dixon was born in a log cabin deep in the southern Missouri Ozarks. he went to a one-room school that had 12-18 students each year. While going to grade school, he became the janitor for one whole year, his first real job.

It was in this remote Ozarks setting that he began to write about its romance and adventure. From youth to adulthood, he spent lots of time in the woods along pristine lakes and streams. This instilled a deep desire to capture both their beauty and music for the soul.

When Chet was a young boy, there were special places he found inspiring. He would visit them often, in secret. One special place required that he slip out of the house at night and walk through dark woods to his favorite bluff lookout high above the beautiful White River and listen to the rumbling water as it flowed over rocky shoals. Those times at the lookout, he would explain later in life, inspired him to become a writer.

Even though he had never written anything except what the schoolteacher demanded, he began his first novel at age 12, then lost his only copy soon after. It was never recovered, but that experience gave him an open door to imagination and expression never before known to him. It created a great desire to share with others the beauty and tranquility of the Ozarks backcountry.

Poetry is his primary genre of writing, other than technical writing relating to his profession. Chet has been heard to say poetry was a valuable asset during his college years. It became a tranquilizer when bad times came around. In 1950, he wrote his first poem. And he hasn’t stopped since.