In preparing for a recent visit to a University of Montana young adult literature class I dug into boxed-up files to find material that might add value their reading of Hitch. That’s my historical novel about the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps, and a boy who became a man through hard work.

I’d squirreled away photographs, research notes, copies of old newspaper articles, and quotes from memoirs. Printouts of my first efforts to find my way into character and plot. And draf...