John W. Arctander (1849 - 1920)

John William Arctander was born in Sweden in 1849, received a university education in Norway and migrated to the United States in 1871. He relocated to Minnesota in 1874, and was admitted to the bar soon thereafter. He set up shop in Minneapolis in 1880, and developed a large practice, especially criminal law.
He translated several legal books into Norwegian and Swedish, and also Henrik Ibsen's play "The Master Builder" into English. In 1909 he published "The Apostle of Alaska: The Story of William Duncan of Metlakahtla." Because Arctander referred to the Tsimshian people as savages in the book, William Duncan bought the copyright and had all unsold copies destroyed. The next year he published a law novel "Guilty?" and in 1911 published another novel, "The Lady in Blue: A Sitka Romance."
Around this time he moved to Seattle and resumed practicing law. In 1919, a period of excessive patriotism and War hysteria, he was disbarred for counselling Scandinavian men on ways to evade military service.