I grew up on the north side of Chicago about seven miles from the Larson's shop which was just north of the downtown area. I visited the shop once after August died in 1944 but at the tender age of 9 and having little interest in what was before me my memory retained little of the occasion. After graduating Chicago's Patrick Henry grade school, I almost completed four years at Roosevelt High School. In 1953 during my senior year, I happened on a chance to an Alaskan adventure and jumped at the opportunity.

Five weeks after arriving in Fairbanks, I received a diploma from Fairbanks High in the before statehood, Territory of Alaska. My shop courses led me to a career in the printing industry from which I retired in 1996. By the time I was prepared to attempt writing a book between 1979 to 1984, I had the expertise to print my own work, but the difficult aspect of the project was actually writing the book After several rewrites with my wife, Carol, helping with the page layout and typing and editing my grammar, we managed to put it all together and actually print and publish our own work! The piles of photos and new information kept pouring in and by 1988 there was enough for a revised edition. Back to the press again on my own time and ran off 2M copies with 8 pages of color! It was a thrill to produce a job for myself and again publish it with International sales.

My idea was to spread the word about the almost forgotten Larson brothers who by then, I believed, had to be noted in the history of the flat-top guitar, and as one of the top three makers (along with Martin and Gibson) of the first half of the 20th century. Book number three followed and was published by Centerstream Publishing in 1996. I was fortunate to commission Muriel Anderson, a lovely and talented composer/musician to record 11 Larsons from my collection which included guitars, harp guitar, and mandolin family instruments on a CD which graced the cover of The Larson's' Creations Guitars and Mandolins. Since marrying soon after school I am proud to claim responsibility of fathering seven children some of whom have given me grandchildren and great-grandchildren!

When Carol and I married in 1978, three more wonderful children were added to my charge. In retirement, between still working on my pet project, the Larson legacy, Carol and I are active as officers in a square dance and round dance club, enjoy fishing in the lake community where we live, and do a bit of travel throughout the year.

- Robert C. Hartman, author

Not only did Robert write the books he also printed the first two.