Ernest Thompson-Seton.
Historians of the Wild—of the denizens of fields and woods and rivers—there are and have been, but in the majority of instances their work has been confined to mere descriptions of the personalities of birds and beasts and fish from the standpoint of the museum, rather than from that of the interested, if unscientific, observer. Ernest Thompson-Seton, however, naturalist and artist, has, through the medium of his books, managed to so wed popular interest and scientific data that the result is fascinating in the extreme. He has shown, too, that to a man of talent there is always a new field to be discovered amid the old ones, which, apart from all else, is a lesson that no one can afford to ignore. Thompson-Seton was born in South Shields, England, August 14, 1860. He is a descendant of the famous Setons of Scotland, Thompson being a nom de plume. Coming to this country when a boy, he at first lived in the backwoods of Canada and also had experiences on the plains of the then far west. He was educated at the Toronto collegiate institute and also at the Royal academy, London, England. In 1896 he married Grace, daughter of Albert Gallatin, of San Francisco. His qualifications as a naturalist becoming known to the government of Manitoba, he was made official naturalist therefor, subsequently publishing works on the birds and mammals of that territory. He studied art in Paris and was at one time one of the chief illustrators of the Century dictionary. His works on natural history topics are well known. Thompson-Seton is what may be called a psychological naturalist, inasmuch as he analyzes the mentalities of his subjects. The results are seen in such books as The Biography of a Grizzly, The Trail of the Sand Hill Stag, Wild Animals I Have Known, etc.