Canadian writer Ernest Seton-Thompson published his first collection of short stories, called Animals I Have Known, two years before the beginning of the new, 20th century. The collection stunned readers and was reprinted several times. A new, mysterious, incomprehensible world has opened up to those who have read this book.
Childhood and youth
Ernest Seton-Thompson (1860 - 1946) was born in Britain. But the roots of his family went back to Scotland. Tales of glorious hunting successes have been passed down from generation to generation. The family was wealthy: the father was a shipowner and carried goods around the world. But then the father's affairs went worse, and six years after the birth of Ernest, the head of the family moved the family to Canada. At first they lived in the town of Lindsay, and after 4 years they moved to Toronto. Then it was a small town surrounded by forests. This had a profound effect on the teenager. Not only did Seton-Thompson study at school. The biography contains facts that he ran into the forest or field and watched birds, looked at flowers and herbs.
The right book
Returning home from school, Ernest took the longest route to admire the shop windows, where paintings of animals, fox heads, deer antlers, and much more were displayed. One day he saw the book Birds of Canada. But it was incredibly expensive - a whole dollar. Ernest saved up money for a month and a half and, finally, was able to run into a bookstore and become the owner of the treasured book. But here's the problem: the book did not reveal the secrets of nature to the young naturalist. Only years later, Seton-Thompson, whose biography is so fascinating, realized that it was a pseudoscientific work. This story is in the story "Little Savages".
Learning to draw
The father did not approve of his son's passion for observing the life of nature. He insisted that Ernest began to study drawing. The young man graduated from art school with a gold medal and went to London in 1879 to continue his art education. There he studied for only four incomplete years and, due to lack of money, returned home.
But the ability to draw was useful to the zoologist and naturalist. Subsequently, Seton-Thompson himself, whose biography is described in this article, will illustrate all his books. His drawings are not only accurate, but also demonstrate the nature of the depicted birds and animals. And the author's attitude towards them is always full of love and humor.
Naturalist and writer
The passion for natural science, which appeared in Seton-Thompson in childhood, led him to the big road in life. Despite everything, he achieved success both in science and in literary work. He wrote many scientific works on zoology, then fiction books began to be published regularly. Seton-Thompson traveled around the USA reading his stories. His biography is the biography of a man passionately in love with all life on earth, unraveling the unknown in the life of birds and animals. He wanted to tell people about them. As a writer, Seton-Thompson was a huge success with both young and adult readers. He was not afraid to show true life in all its cruelty. Often you want to shed tears when your favorite hero dies at the end.
You can't deceive children with sweet stories, Seton-Thompson believed. The writer's stories are honest and, no matter how tragic the death of the hero, the reader returns to the memories of his best features. This is what makes him immortal. The dignified death of the leader of the pack of wolves Lobo, cunning and clever, causes genuine regret. As well as the ridiculous death of the Scottish Shepherd Bingo. In the story "In the footsteps of a deer" the end is happy. The hunter was unable to raise his hand and kill the noble animal.
Seton-Thompson organized in 1906 the League of Forest Craftsmen, the purpose of which was the study and protection of wild animals. He dreamed of a harmonious life of man and nature.
Seton-Thompson died at the age of 86 and was cremated. And years later, his ashes were scattered over the hills of New Mexico.
In the photo: E. Thompson in Indian clothes.
(in revision)
Ernest Thompson Seton (Seaton)
(renamed ONLY in Russia to Seton-Thompson)
/ Ernest Thompson Seton, August 14, 1860, South Shields, UK - October 23, 1946, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA /
Canadian writer, animal painter, naturalist and public figure of British origin. One of the founders of the scouting movement in the United States. Seton (Chief "Black Wolf") - illustrator, naturalist, writer, storyteller and lecturer, best-selling author on animal life, expert on Native American sign language, supporter of political, cultural and spiritual rights of the indigenous population of America, author of a work on the theory and practice of disguise .
The artist also liked to depict footprints in the snow. He painted traces of a bear, deer, fox, raccoon, lynx and some other animals. Not ignored and the trail of the wolf. Of course, he winds up more often than others. In letters to friends, Thompson often drew the footprint of a wolf instead of a signature, and sometimes signed: "Wolf Thompson." He was a great friend of the Indians. Few people know that Thompson also had an Indian name - Black Wolf. In our opinion, it is gloomy, but after all, among the animals, the wolf enjoyed special respect among the Indians.
In 1891 he published a large volume of the Birds of Manitoba catalogue, which in 1892 won him an appointment as naturalist for the provincial government of Manitoba. In the early 1890s he made several trips to Paris to continue his art studies. The first book that made Seton famous, Wild Animals I Have Known, was published in 1898.
In 1902, he organized the League of Woodcraft Indians (in Russian approximately: Indians - experts in the forest), an organization for boys (though not Indians), and wrote its charter-guide on a birch bark scroll. Following the example of the Woodcraft Indians, English Colonel Lord Baden-Powell organized the Boy Scout movement in England. Subsequently, based on the League of Woodcraft Indians, Seton Thompson and Daniel Beard (also a writer and illustrator) organized the Boy Scouts of America movement. Interestingly, Seton was expelled from the organization in 1915, for criticizing its militaristic orientation, although officially, for the fact that he was not an American citizen.
In 1908 he published The Life of the Northern Animals in 2 volumes, and in 1925-1927 the 8-volume work The Life of the Wild Animals. In 1930 he moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and in 1931 he became an American citizen. He lived in Santa Fe for the rest of his life.
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Ernest was not of English origin. His ancestors were from Scotland. Tales of a glorious past were lovingly kept in the family, as were the hunting successes of many of their members who belonged to an old family, especially about Lord Seton, a passionate hunter who killed the last wolf in the British Isles in the same 18th century. Many years later, having become a famous writer, Seton restored the old surname of the family, retaining for some time a double surname, under which he established himself as a writer in world literature.
As a multi-talented person, he spoke about his life in the book “My Life” (1941) written by him in his declining years.
The father of the future writer was a wealthy man, the owner of about ten ships that transported goods to all parts of the world. A large family - it had fourteen children (four of them died at an early age) - lived in abundance. Seton was the youngest, the tenth child. At an early age, he developed a love for animals. Even if he cried bitterly, he had only to say: “Look, birdie!” or show some bug to make him shut up. In winter, as he recalled, his mother used to wrap him in a blanket and tell him to think he was a tree. Entering this image, the boy, without moving, sat for hours near the wall. He also liked to listen to fairy tales, such as Little Red Riding Hood and The Wolf and the Seven Kids, but his sympathies were always on the side of the wolf.
The writer truthfully describes the episode of the massacre, in which he himself participated, over the neighboring chickens, who got lost on their site. Later came both fear and shame for what he had done. Perhaps, it was after this event that the writer began to think about the difficult and often dramatic relationship between man and nature, about the need to protect it from human desires that harm nature.
In the early years of Seton's childhood, his father's affairs deteriorated, and when the boy was six years old, the whole family moved in search of happiness to Canada. They first settled in Lindsay, Ontario, and four years ago moved to Toronto, then a small town surrounded by forests.
This move to Canada determined the further fate of the writer. The boy found himself in completely unusual conditions for him. He opened a new world of forests, where there were many different animals and birds.
Young Ernest remembered most of all how the first house was erected by the hands of his parents and brothers, in the construction of which he, the baby, also took part. He also remembered the long way to school, when he somehow almost did not freeze. He remembered how the first deer was shot in front of his brother, and his feelings: the desire to hit him, and then the feeling of pain at the sight of the animal, which died before his eyes.
The guy always spent all his free time in the fields, forests, watching the life of animals and birds. Already by the end of school, he knew that he would become a naturalist. But my father was against it, because this profession did not make it possible to earn a lot of money. He thought it best to learn to be an artist by painting his favorite animals. So he started painting. He was taught by a local master. The young man studies at the local art school, where he receives a gold medal.
Forever he remembered his first oil painting, a portrait of a hawk. The boy spent two weeks on his performance, diligently writing out all the details. Thompson's school drawings compare favorably with those of his peers. Already in his youth, he depicts animals, usually from nature. His drawings were interesting, but nothing really stood out.
After working for two years after school as an apprentice to a young and successful artist in Toronto, Ernest begins attending evening classes at the Toronto College of Art and ends up as his first student. Seton went to London to continue his art education, where in 1880 he entered the School of Painting and Sculpture at the Royal Academy, having been among six scholarship holders out of a hundred applicants in a competition.
The student card, engraved, by the way, on ivory, gave a number of privileges, including free admission to the zoo. There, the future artist, writer and naturalist will spend many days getting to know its inhabitants, drawing a lot from nature. Unfortunately, in a year, for health reasons, he will be forced to leave London and return home.
In the mid-eighties, Thompson begins to write stories about animals, but only write. Nobody prints them yet. In the autumn of 1890, he entered an art school in Paris, attending evening classes. And during the day... During the day, as in London, he disappears in the zoo, drawing his favorite animals. How many of them did he draw? No one has answered this question yet. But it is known that a folder with three thousand drawings is kept in his house to this day! Written and many pictures. Seton illustrates all his stories with his own drawings, placing many of them on the margins of the pages.
“Wolves have always been a favorite subject of my drawings,” admits the writer. Indeed, he had a particular fondness for wolves. He devoted four independent long stories to them: “Lobo” (the author’s favorite wolf), “Winnipeg Wolf”, “Badland Billy, or the Winning Wolf” and “Tito. The history of the meadow wolf. Each of the stories is richly illustrated with drawings and reproductions of paintings.
During Thompson's visit to the Paris Zoo in 1890, his attention was drawn to one of the wolves - a large, beautiful animal, from which he painted the Sleeping Wolf painting. She was presented at the Great Art Salon of Paris. The picture was accepted.
One day, standing near his work in the Salon, the author heard from a random visitor a story about how, in the Pyrenees mountains near the southern border of France, wolves tore to pieces a hunter who lived in a secluded hut and was engaged in hunting for wolves. Seton-Thompson plans to write a picture on this subject.
Having completed it on a canvas measuring 1.4x2.1 meters, he calls the new work “Revenge of the Wolves”, but one of his French friends suggested a different name: “Wait in vain”, explaining that it is more in line with the meaning of the tragedy. You can see a fragment of the canvas in the illustration. True, there is no view of the house in the background, from the chimney of which smoke is coming, probably, someone in the house is really waiting for the return of the unfortunate hunter. This time the jury of the Salon rejected the picture, noting that it "insults human dignity" and "the author apparently sympathizes with the wolf."
Thompson later decided to show the painting at the International Exhibition in Chicago. And again she was rejected. But a letter appeared in the press from the chairman of the Canadian section of the exhibition, which said: “We, unfortunately, have enough sugary, inexpressive daubs, and I personally would like to see a bold, courageous manner of writing - just like in the painting “Wait Waiting” . A scandal erupted. As a result, the canvas took one of the central places in the exposition of the Canadian section.
In 1895, Seton conceived another major painting about wolves for another exhibition in Paris. About the new idea, the artist wrote: “Forest, Russian sleighs are rushing along a fresh path, and a pack of twelve wolves is chasing them behind them.” Work began: the composition was carefully considered, a sketch of each wolf was completed. The artist worked with inspiration, and called his painting "The Chase".
But ... again, failure. True, this time the jury of the Paris Salon, having rejected the canvas itself, accepted six studies. When later the picture was seen by US President Theodore Roosevelt, who himself was fond of hunting and knew a lot about wolves, he exclaimed: “I have never seen a picture where wolves were so beautifully depicted!” Soon, at his request, Seton makes a copy of the central part of the painting, later placed in the Theodore Roosevelt Gallery.
And here is a portrait of Seton's famous pet, Lobo the wolf. The animal's head painted in oil is extremely expressive and dynamic. Look: here he is a smart, strong hero of wild raids on herds of cattle, who terrified the local farmers. Having lost his vigilance after the death of his girlfriend Blanca the white wolf and fell into a trap, he boldly meets his enemies.
Seton painted many other paintings depicting the life of wolves, and all of them illustrate one or another of his literary works. Many paintings are reproduced in the writer's books published in different years.
Over the course of a long life, Seton-Thompson kept a diary. He compiled 50 thick leather-bound volumes. And in all - countless drawings. Pencils, brushes, paints, ink accompanied the writer-artist everywhere. The first collection of his short stories, Animals I Have Known, was published in 1898. Animals were written about even before Thompson. Animals and birds were often the heroes of fairy tales and fables, but usually they were characters who thought and acted like people. Seton-Thompson was the first to write specifically about the animals themselves, about their actions, characters, and moods. The story is not told in the first person. You are reading a story about an animal, not the animal's fantasy thoughts about itself.
Drawings on the margins of books ... These are the heroes of the events described. They tell us about certain incidents that happened to them, sometimes funny, sometimes sad. Here is the Web bear cub, caught in a trap, here is another bear cub desperately screaming. He climbed a thin tree, it's time to get down, but it's scary! Here is a fast running rabbit. And by the expressiveness of the image, you see that the hare does not just run, but rushes as soon as it can. Here lies a sick dog with a bandaged muzzle. There is sadness and longing in his narrowed eyes, and you have no doubt: yes, the dog is really sick, he is not sweet. And there are hundreds of such drawings! ..
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In 1879, Ernest went to London to enter the Royal Academy of Arts. But it was not until the following year that he was enrolled and given the opportunity to complete a seven-year course of study. The greatest joy for him then was a visit to the zoo, where he sat all day, making sketches of animals. But he did not study at the academy for long. The constant need for money, starvation tore his strength, and he was forced to return home in 1882.
Seton settled in Manitoba and returned to his favorite pastime - animal watching. At this time, he writes and publishes many articles about animals, and in 1886 his first book, Mammals of Manitoba, was published, after which a number of publications of a scientific nature soon appeared.
In 1898, he published the book My Wild Friends, which made people talk about him as a writer who rediscovered the animal world for man ...
The main characters of Seton - not only one, two, but several dozen books - are animals. Sometimes domestic, but mostly wild, forest, which modern people, as a rule, had to see only in a zoo, in a small and uncomfortable cage.
Seton describes their life in freedom, where they appear in all their glory, in no way inferior to man, but mostly superior to it, with their own special character, habits, with their own unique character, with a one-of-a-kind fate, the capricious turns of which capture no less than the intrigue of an adventure novel.
There are many unusual things in the stories that the writer tells. Its heroes are the Winnipeg wolf, the dog Bingo, who saved the owner from certain death; the wise leader of the pack of wolves Lobo, who easily unravels all the tricks of the hunters, and his girlfriend Blanca; coyote Tito; Rabbit Jack and many others seem to be gifted with extraordinary qualities, but the stories themselves are striking primarily in their realism. These are "invented stories". The writer speaks only of what he saw, in which he himself took part. But both the vision and his participation are special. He saw the world around him through the eyes of a naturalist who was not just in love with nature, not touched by a person, carefully studies it in all its manifestations, which tries to comprehend its secrets, approaches it with scientific objectivity.
Seton carefully studied the habits of a wide variety of animals and birds. When he wrote about animals, readers were amazed at the author's powers of observation. Thompson wrote about everything as if he himself had once been a crow, a fox, a bear. He knew the life of animals in detail, knew how they breed their offspring, how they find food, and what tricks they use to deceive their enemies. And this is no coincidence, because he was a scientist and spent decades observing many animals of the Canadian forests. He recorded everything he saw in his diary of a naturalist, which he used when he began to write his works, where he “followed” his animals. In addition, the writer drew beautifully. As a rule, he illustrated his books himself and left thousands of pictures from nature.
But animals were not Seton's only passion. His other passion was the Indians, their way of life, their "forest science": the Writer deeply admired how the Indians, whose life passed in the forests, among the wild, knew how to read it like an open book, penetrating into all its secrets. He devoted many years to studying their life.
All this was reflected in the books of Thompson Seton, which were no less famous than his stories about animals.
From the book "Tales of the Forest Country".
/ per. A.V. Vashchenko /
The global problems of our time eventually turn into environmental ones. Attitude towards them more and more reveals the inability of a person - namely a civilized person - to survive. Responding to this, modern literature sharply increases attention to environmental topics - “ecological prose” arises, natural-philosophical prose continues, mass-mystical flourishes, etc.
In the light of modernity, it is interesting and instructive to look back to the experience of the early 20th century. At the same time, the names of writers, Indian and white, who connected life with nature, animals and, as often happens, with a related aboriginal theme, take on a special sound. This approach then brought them to the conflict between nature and traditional culture, on the one hand, and civilization, on the other. Jack London, Gray Owl, Charles Roberts, Ohidzheza and a number of others, each in their own way reflected this trend of the time. On Russian soil, you can put Bogoraz-Tan, Prishvin, Arsenyev, Fedorov in line with them. However, against their background, the legacy of Ernest Thompson Seton still stands apart, which addresses us today with a new side.
The writer-scientist, naturalist, artist, longing for the revelations of the wild land, came to natural philosophy, and then to the mystical and philosophical doctrine of the role of nature in human life. Having written a number of scientific papers devoted to the description of the birds of Canada, then making a name for himself on stories about "animal heroes", Thompson-Seton at the end of his days came to the conclusion that Western (and any other) civilization was exhausted and the need to learn from nature and the aboriginal Northern America. By that time, he had spent a lot of time among the Indians, receiving the respectful nickname of "leader."
The concept of the world and nature, which the writer came to over time, forced him to create a special school on the territory of his own estate in New Mexico called the “League of the Woodcraft” (Woodcraft League) to teach adults and children about life in nature and the basics of its wisdom. It was supposed to be a kind of national and international "institute" of natural history and life in nature. An Indian Kiva sanctuary, consecrated by Indian elders, is located on the protected area, and the writer himself and his wife Julia Seton were the only white people who were allowed to go down to the Indian sanctuary. It was also there that a room for "secular" meetings was conceived and supplied. The walls in this "Council House" were painted with colorful murals by Jack Hokea, a well-known Kiowa painter of the day. All this, including the main house, where the writer's library, drawings and archives, including the honorary diploma granted to Thompson by Alexander III, are still kept, are waiting for their researchers. It's a shame, however, that the estate is now falling into disrepair: the roof of the main house is leaking, the ceilings of the council house have collapsed, and the frescoes of Hokea probably cannot be saved from the elements.
Future members of the League had to be brought up on something. And then the writer arranged his works in the form of manuals for converts. These included Rolf in the Woods (1911), Wild Animals at Home (1913), Woodland Tales (1921) ) and The Book of Woodcraft and Indian Lore (1922). It is more important for us now to single out volume 3, "History of the Forest Land", since this book has combined 107 small parables that "initiate" the reader into the natural bush. From it, the cited stories are taken, first translated into Russian.
The main meaning of these small revelations is that the legacy of Thompson Seton, his plans, ideas, concepts and spirit of ideological and creative searches are directly addressed to those who love life in nature, to the Indian culture based on this. Those who connect their hopes with revelations drawn from the Great Spirit and see the spiritual in the material environment. In other words, to youth and adults, in whom childishness and the nature of all things live.
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(From the preface to the book "The Prairies of the Arctic")
Ernest Seton-Thompson is world famous as a naturalist writer and artist. His books are saturated with love for nature, they helped many people to maintain a clean and careful attitude towards the animals and plants around us everywhere. Less know Seton-Thompson as a traveler and scientist - after all, he did not graduate from universities and did not defend dissertations. And yet it is he who should be recognized as one of the founders of naturalistic ecology. It was he (and also J.-A. Fabre) who drew attention to the detailed study of animal behavior. Later, this zoological science was called ethology. The main scientific work of Seton-Thompson is the multi-volume Life of Wild Beasts. Seton-Thompson left behind not only books, but also followers, students - for example, the famous scientist A. Formozov (1899-1973). As a 23-year-old student, he sent Seton-Thompson his first book with author's drawings and received a response: “A great future belongs to those who can see and express what they see in drawings, whether on the pages of books ... I hope that you will continue your work ". Seton-Thompson, born in England (August 14, 1860), lived a long life, and almost his entire life was spent in the forests and prairies of North America, like the life of St. John's Wort from the immortal works of Fenimore Cooper. Since childhood, Nature has revealed its secrets to the naturalist in love with her and presented themes for creativity. Ernest especially loved and knew birds. However, the boy's parents were indifferent to his hobby. In a large and almost poor family, the upbringing was quite harsh. For example, money for books and much more, which was considered superfluous, was not allocated by parents. The young man's life did not start out easy, but hard work always brings results - and often brings success. Ernest became an artist, fame came to him. He painted birds and wild animals, being convinced of his vocation - to paint. However, books brought him real fame. For the first time, stories about animals were written so truthfully and vividly, with an extremely accurate and deep knowledge of their behavior and lifestyle. Seton-Thompson's books have been published and reprinted hundreds of times. The most famous of them are Dominoes, Animal Stories, Rolf in the Woods, Animal Heroes, My Life. “I knew the torment of thirst and decided to dig a well so that others could drink from it,” the famous writer and naturalist prefaced these wise words to his book “Little Savages”, which tells about the adventures of two boys in the Canadian forests, about the most important thing in wild life nature and the indigenous inhabitants of the wilderness - the Indians. Contemporaries were surprised to discover the whole world that Mr. Thompson gave them. It turned out that in one person the talents of an artist and a writer can be combined in an amazing way! And also a scientist. This is truly a rare gift. Seton-Thompson has always lived in nature. And he languished if he was forced to live in cities for a long time. The big cities of America simply oppressed him. Therefore, he traveled a lot. As a child, he dreamed of seeing herds of bison roaming the prairies ... Alas, dreams remained dreams - wildlife in North America almost everywhere receded under the onslaught of the so-called civilization, bison and many other animals became rare or exterminated altogether. But still, when the writer and artist was 47 years old, he managed to fulfill his old dream - to see herds (albeit small) of forest bison, caribou reindeer, numerous flocks of birds ... humor and concern for the future of Native Americans, full of respect for the Indians living in the difficult conditions of the Canadian North. Seton writes about the exceptional honesty of these people, about their generosity towards each other. The attitude towards whites is different. The Indians see the newcomers from Europe - the newcomers from the East - as debtors. After all, the whites took almost everything from them. And most importantly - the land that fed them by hunting. The writer saw that the so-called civilization means illness, moral decay, poverty for the indigenous people of America. Wise customs disappear, young people forget their history. Seton-Thompson correctly assessed the danger of an endemic Americanization of all aspects of life, destroying from the outside and, even worse, from the inside. Predicting, like O. Stapledon, the aggressive Americanization of Europe and the rest of the world, Seton-Thompson warned: “Beware, Europeans! In a hundred years you will be Americanized!..” It seems that the writer turned out to be right - both in relation to society, and in relation to “its environment”, long-suffering Nature ... The books that the great Ernest Seton-Thompson gave to mankind instilled a sincere love for nature in millions , tens of millions of people, helped (and still help) the formation of environmental thinking, which is so necessary to solve one of the most important (if not the most important!) problems of our time - environmental protection.
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Glory to the writer to bring such books as "Wild animals as I know them", "The life of those who are hunted", "The life of wild animals" (the last work is presented in eight volumes), "Grizzly Biography", "Birch bark", "Book about the forest. In his books, the author adhered to scientific accuracy, which, however, did not detract from their artistic value and entertaining presentation. His work had a huge impact on other animal writers.
Such is the biography of Seton-Thompson, a great writer and a wonderful person. This outstanding naturalist ended his life in America on October 23, 1946.
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Vasily Peskov.
Visiting Seton.
We asked a boy selling melons on the outskirts of Santa Fe how to get to Seaton Village.
The boy had heard about this village, but perhaps only that it was somewhere.
Oh, it's close... Leave the car, I'll see you.
And here it is, the house on the hillside, the Seton-Thompson house. (We say Seton, Americans say Seaton).
Many childhood memories are associated with the books of Seton-Thompson.
And excitement, curiosity, memories - everything washed over me at once, while the three of us climbed the hill. It was the home of someone dear to me.
A black dog ran out and, with a friendliness not befitting a meeting of strangers, began to joyfully run at his feet. In the yard beyond the fence came the barking of another dog. The door of the house was locked. Such a turn of affairs both upset and, perhaps, delighted - it was time to put my feelings in order.
In the 1930s, here, on the hills overgrown with juniper and pine forests, next to Indian huts, an illustrious man - a writer, artist, naturalist - built himself a dwelling. He himself drew a plan for the construction, he himself chose logs and stones, along with carpenters, he did not let go of the ax. He chose a wild, uncomfortable place in order to live the rest of his days among nature, not yet trampled by man.
At that time, on the other side of the Earth, in a village near Voronezh, a boy lived. The world for him, where the sun set, ended with a forest, and where it rose, with a steppe. And the most interesting place in this world was a stream, marshy chaplygs, an alder forest, a wet meadow with yellow wagtails, waders and lapwings. A day in childhood is great, but it was not enough to run around this great kingdom. In the evenings, the already half-asleep traveler's mother, reprimanding him for leaving the heifer unattended, and for the holes in his freshly sewn shirt, steamed chicks with sour cream. (Chicks - for those who do not know - is a disease of village boys: from constant climbing in the swamps, the dried mud on the legs cracked finely along with the skin.) It was a good time! And then someone's smart, attentive hand planted a book called "Animals-Heroes" to the nine-year-old "naturalist".
Only now, having already gray hair, do you understand how important it is to throw the right grain into the ground in time. Over the next thirty years, I probably did not read a book more necessary than this one. Everything in the book was simple, clear and very close. Pigeons, cats, horses, wolves, foxes, sparrows, mice, dogs, tits - everything is familiar and at the same time new and unusual. The pictures in the book were also special. They were placed on the sheets on the side. There were many of them: someone's footprints, dropped feathers, an extinct fire, wolf's eyes looking out of the darkness with two lights, a flower, a hut, a string of geese, a cow's skull, a trap ... Reading the book, I experienced a strange feeling, as if everything What was drawn and written in it, I saw myself on our river, in the fishing line, in chaplygs, in the yard. The book seemed to me a treasure to be put under the pillow.
Later, from the pictures in the wide margins, I immediately recognized the books dear to me, sought out and read everything that could be found. Even later, re-reading Seton-Thompson with an experienced eye, I felt this man's enormous knowledge and love for nature, extraordinary authenticity in every word and every drawing. Now I became interested in the author himself and realized that there is a bright, interesting life behind the books. Checked in the library: is there anything about Seton-Thompson? Suddenly the old librarian said: “Just a minute,” and returned with a small book. “My life” - I read on the cover ... All the same style - a narrow set, and drawings on wide margins: a hut, wolf tracks, a running elk, a locomotive drowned in the snow, a rider on a horse among the prairies ...
I read the book overnight, turning over the last pages in the morning light. This second meeting with Seton-Thompson was more serious than a date in childhood. The discovery was important: a person lived a happy life because he worked tirelessly and did his favorite thing. The book also opened my eyes to the fact that it is very difficult to feel "one's purpose" and then follow it. Life is a continuous test, it does not spare those who retreat and stumble. But perseverance, faith and courage do not remain without reward. I was then in a state that many have experienced: the school is over, but several obviously wrong steps have been taken. What's next? This book has supported me. She is able to support everyone who reads it. This is the case when a person's life serves as a lesson. The last dot in the book was set in 1940. Seton-Thompson died six years later.
Castle house...
Having learned where the guests came from, the neighbor of the house said: the hosts did not go far, most likely they went to the shops.
Accompanied by a good-natured black dog and to the frantic barking of another dog in the yard, we go around the house ... Every house will tell something about the owner. Here is a special case. A person did not just move into a dwelling built by someone. At this place, the fire of the expedition led by Seton-Thompson burned. And these hills captivated the well-worn traveler with something.
Seton-Thompson called this house his castle. You can imagine how he first lit wood in the fireplace. And how in 1946 the house lost its main tenant and builder. The house is now clearly residential - there are neat curtains on the windows and many flowers.
Four hours of waiting. We were about to take a last look at the estate, when suddenly a dusty cherry-colored Volkswagen drove up to the house. A whole landing party poured out of the car: a man, a woman and four children - a “pale-faced” boy and a girl and two Indians, also a boy and a girl. His eyes are wary: what are strangers doing at the house? .. A minute later everything was explained, and now we are already helping to unload the suitcases.
On the threshold, the hostess makes a sign:
Let's just sit down for a minute... Amazing day! Guests... My birthday... And Sherry's first day... Daughter, come to me.
It turns out that the family went to an orphanage in the city of Farmington. Seven-year-old Indian Sherry was adopted. And she, like the two guests, sees for the first time the house in which she is now to live.
Later, when the bustle of the arrival subsided and we got to know each other properly, a family photo was taken. Considering it now, it is easiest to imagine the people who welcomed us cordially. Here is a photo of Dee Barbara, the mistress of the house, the adopted daughter of Seton-Thompson. She was Sherry's age when they brought her to this house at noon like that. In a conversation, Dee casually told us that her father also has a daughter, but she lives in a different place ... On the right in the photo is Dale Barbara, the husband of Seton-Thompson's daughter, the father of the children. In English, laconic, businesslike and friendly, he showed us all the nooks and crannies of the house and took us to the pine forests, where there is a "school of Indian wisdom" that looks like a very large yurt. The walls of the school are painted with scenes from the life of the Indians. In the middle, on an earthen floor, is the ashes of a fire lined with stones.
Seton Thompson sat here for a long time with the Indians. - Dale showed how they were sitting here, by the fire, leaning their backs against the wall. - Conversations were about crafts, hunting, customs. The paintings were made by an Indian artist.
Did Dale know his famous father-in-law?
No, only from books, from photographs, from things that surround us. The children in the picture are Seton-Thompson's grandchildren. Yesterday there were three. Now there are four. Mike is the youngest in the family. An unusually lively and beautiful boy. Minion and prankster. The Indians, the boy's parents, died when he was a few months old. Mike is now six years old.
And now let's take a good look around ... A large room full of books and paintings. The piano is aside. An armchair near the table with a carved greeting: "Welcome, my friends!" Eminent guests sat in this chair - artists, writers and scientists who came to Seaton Village. But more often the Indians sat in the chairs. They lived here in the hills, and the doors of the house were open for them at any hour. On the wall there is evidence of meetings - a cape made of feathers of an Indian warrior. Dee puts on this dress, allows us to try it on, explains the meaning of the complex combination of eagle feathers, beadwork and ermine skin trim. Like the current orders and army insignia, the cape of the Indian gave the oncoming person a complete idea: with whom he was dealing, was he dexterous, was he marked with the sign of the leader? Seton-Thompson was among the Indians a full cavalier of all the highest honors and titles. Any hunter from the local tribe, seeing his headgear, would immediately understand this. Seton-Thompson was proud of this recognition no less than the recognition of his literary and scientific merits. He even had an Indian name, somewhat gloomy for a "pale-faced" man - Black Wolf. But, knowing how high in the hierarchy of the inhabitants of the forest the Indians put the wolf, you are not surprised at the choice of the name.
Right there in the room, next to a cape of feathers, there are folios of the best publications in biology, works on art and philosophy, works of literature, notes, folders of letters from all over the world and the writer’s own books in almost all languages of the world. In a special place are diaries and folders with drawings (three thousand originals of the same pictures that captivate us with a special arrangement on the margins of book sheets). It is a pleasure to leaf through one after another dense, slightly yellowed sheets with traces of erasing ink droplets, lines of pen test and variants of drawings. Pathfinder Ernest Thompson was always worried about footprints in the snow. With the same feeling you look at paper with traces of painstaking work. The work room in the house is tiny. A black lacquered table, a pile of paper, pens and brushes in a pot with Indian ornaments, pencil stubs - he liked to write with a simple pencil. (The same tendency was with Prishvin, who harassed the pencil to the size of a thimble.)
My father worked until his last day. He died in this chair.
In addition to the living room and workshop, there is an altar in the house, where few were allowed - only friends, and then only the closest. Fifteen steps up the wooden stairs, and here it is, the cherished place of Seton-Thompson - a forest hut in the house. Walls of thick logs, a log ceiling, a rough fireplace that replaced a fire. Just like a forest hunter's hut. You can hang a hat on a nail in the wall. If you stretch your legs from a rough trestle bed, you will just reach the fire. It smells of tar and old smoke. This is a place for reflection, memories, for a heartfelt conversation with a person who understands you, who, together with the owner, can look at the fire for a long time without a single word. He lived with the consciousness that he was part of nature, and he died confident: life was not tailored by mistake. Eighty-six - it's time to take stock. But he didn't like to talk about the end. To the delicate question of one of his friends who spent the evening with him: "Where to bury?" - he answered in much the same way as Leo Tolstoy: “What's the difference”, - but just like Tolstoy, he clarified: “Leave these hills ...” His will was fulfilled. The urn with the ashes stood in the niche of the building. And in 1960, on the 100th anniversary of the birth of Seton-Thompson, admirers and friends came to the village. The small plane rose as high as it could over the hills and left a light cloud in the sky. Hills, rising one after another, are the best monument to a person who loved these places ...
Five hours in the house ... Visiting the home of a person dear to you - no matter where it is located, in the village of Mikhailovsky, Konstantinov, Polenov, Spassky-Lutovinovo, Yasnaya Polyana, the town of Weimar, in Tarusa, in Dunin near Zvenigorod or here, in Seaton Village , - always convinces of the same thing: all creative values \u200b\u200bare created from completely earthly impressions, fed on earthly juices, there is nothing chosen for the artist and poet on earth - one common cauldron for everyone. In the end, everything is decided by the thirst for life, vigilance of the eye, sensitivity of the ear and heart. Textbook silhouettes and varnished pictures often separate the creator from those for whom he created. And therefore it is very important to see, for example, that Leo Tolstoy slept on an ordinary bed and not some special lamp burned over his table, but an ordinary kerosene lamp. After reading the documentary details of Pushkin's biography collected by Veresaev, you suddenly discover a new Pushkin and after that you look at the bronze monument differently - in Pushkin you feel more of a Man than before, he has become dearer to you.
We also experienced the feeling of approaching Man in the Seton-Thompson house. Something important has been added to what was stored in the memory from childhood. These hills. A fire pit that had not been overgrown since the time when the old man, alone or with the Indians, sat by the fire in the evening. A sparse backyard garden. A trophy on the wall, obtained by a young hunter in a two-week competition with an elk. Sheets of paper with terribly illegible handwriting, over which he dropped a pencil.
It was especially interesting to leaf through the family album. I do not remember our publications with a portrait of Seton-Thompson. Here, in the house, for the first time we saw what he looked like. Here is youth, a challenge to New York - a famously twisted mustache, shirt sleeves rolled up above the elbow, a fervently turned head, a cloak on his arm ... Here is a picture of "The Man Who Found Himself" - a confident look, a mustache, rich hair, a neatly tied tie. This is the time when Ernest Seton-Thompson is already recognized, known. During these years, he communicates with Mark Twain and the president, he is recognized on the streets and applauded at his lectures ... Five pages of the album - and we already see a man with glasses, turned gray. The beautiful face of a wise old man who has seen everything. During these years, he writes: “I achieved fame and fortune in the east of America. But the call of the Wild West still thrilled my heart." Work, conversations near the fire, contemplation of the hills - these are his values of these years. And the last photo: the mustache sagged, the jacket is baggy. It seems that he is looking at the photographer with displeasure - in old age people do not like to be filmed. This year he said: "Leave these hills ..."
While the guests were walking around the house, its current tenants laid a ceremonial table. There are more than enough reasons to sit down for him: the birthday of the hostess, the first day of Sherry's stay in the family, and the guests are also not discounted. The table is the same one at which Seton-Thompson received his friends.
He always sat there...
Let's skip the details of the table conversation. Let's just say: it was good for both the guests and the hosts. The children, forgetting about food, leafing through a gift book, played a record with the voices of Moscow birds.
Reading grandfather?
Father and mother laughed:
There are no prophets in their own country. One is still too small, the other is crazy about basketball ...
They all walked out to the door of the house. Grasshoppers rattled in the dry huts behind the house. The sun was slowly cooling down and was ready to say goodbye to the village. Deep shadows appeared on the hills.
Did a plane fly over there?
Yes, just above the top...
At dusk we said goodbye.
http://www.nsk.kp.ru/daily/25875.3/2838660/
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From the book "My Life"
My books.
My old friend Henry Still was in charge of the book art department at Charles Scribner & Sons. Still introduced me to the publisher Kimbal and to many prominent people in the literary world.
At that time, James Barry, a Scottish writer, arrived in New York, and Kimball arranged a dinner in his honor in one of the fashionable clubs in New York. Among those invited was also the future President of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt.
To draw the attention of those present to me, Still had me speak about wolves. I was on a roll that day and read first one story and then another. Theodore Roosevelt, himself an avid hunter, applauded me especially warmly.
Then he came up to me and said:
- I want you to have lunch with me one of the next days.
The dinner took place at the Metropolitan Club, where I again performed with great success, reading my stories about animals.
If a writer has written a series of stories that have been published in magazines and attracted the attention of readers, it is natural that his next step will be to publish a collection of these stories.
I picked up eight stories with the idea of publishing a collection: "Lobo", "Springfield Fox", "Mustang Pacer", "Woollie", "Redneck", attached my illustrations to them and took them to the Scribner and Sons publishing house.
The editor approved my stories. Then I went to Scribner himself to finalize the deal.
Scribner began by complaining about the enormous risk involved in publishing, and insisted that most books are a loss, something that should never be forgotten when making a contract. In view of all this, ten per cent of the sale price of the book, plus a small additional fee for illustrations, is all he has to offer.
How many copies do you need to sell to cover publishing costs? I asked.
“At least two thousand copies,” said Scribner.
Then I came up with my terms:
- I want to tell you that it is not in my interests to throw this book in one heap with a hundred other new books. I will talk about my book, I will speak with my stories before a meeting of readers in various cities, and it will be bought with pleasure. Along the way, I will arrange exhibitions of my illustrations. I am so sure of the success of this book that I will not charge you a single cent from the sale of the first two thousand copies, but I make it a condition that you will pay me not ten percent, as you offer, but twenty of the proceeds on further sales.
My terms were accepted, the contract was signed. The book was published on October 20, 1898 under the title My Wild Friends. Her success exceeded all expectations - in a short time she sold out in several editions.
There is no doubt that this book marked the beginning of a new, realistic trend in animal literature. It is the first time that animal behavior has been truly depicted.
Until now, only fables, tales about animals and such stories were known, where animals talk and behave like people dressed in animal skins.
The American writer Clarence Hawks gave me his book with the inscription:
"To Ernest Seton-Thompson, friend and brother naturalist, whose work lit the way for a new school of naturalist writers and made tens of thousands love the wild."
Following the first collection, my other books appeared in print: The Fate of the Persecuted, Animal Heroes, Biography of a Bear, Mustang Pacer, and others.
Books were published as soon as I had time to write and illustrate them. My readers wanted to see the author. One of the clubs in New York asked me to speak, offering a fee of one hundred dollars. I accepted this offer and spent a pleasant hour reading my stories, or, in the language of my listeners, "turning into animals." I am naturally gifted with a strong voice and stage presence. Quite involuntarily, I portrayed animals in the faces, like an actor. My friend to whom I gave the story "Lobo" told me:
- Seton, you can speak this story to your heart's content. And while one generation grows up, another will be ready to listen to you.
My friend was right - I'm still doing this story, as well as a dozen others.
From all over America, I received offers to speak to readers. In the end, this correspondence grew to grandiose proportions and weighed me down.
One fine day, quite unexpectedly for myself, I was freed from these troubles and labor. Here's how it happened. Major James Pond, a well-known lecture organizer who gave speeches to Mark Twain and a number of other famous Americans, one day came to hear me speak.
During the break, he came up to me and said:
- Well, I will report to you, you are a godsend for me - we can do great things with you, if you only want.
After a short conversation, he offered me the following:
- I will pay you all expenses, travel, hotel, posters, magic lantern, hall and invite a person who will act as your secretary and assistant, and I ask you to speak your stories twice a day, five days a week for a fee of six hundred dollars in Week. The term of the proposed contract is twenty weeks before the New Year and ten weeks after the New Year.
I accepted these conditions without hesitation, and we worked together for several years. The death of Major Pond interrupted our cooperation.
If I were to describe all the funny adventures and misadventures on the path of my wanderings, to tell about the eternal haste in which I lived, trying to get to the appointed time, despite the snowstorm and fatigue, if I were to describe all this, it would turn out to be a rather thick book.
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We live in a fast-paced age of ever-accelerating development of science and technology. Unfortunately, in many countries, due to poor environmental control, nature is becoming increasingly scarce, and animal habitats are changing (and not for the better). “Let these places be sacred to us,” Thompson wrote, “so that living beings may enjoy there, safe, although from us, the sight of which can only give one pleasure to everyone who carefully and with a pure heart observes them.”
Readers will always be grateful to the great humanist Seton-Thompson for the warm feelings that he awakened in them with his stories about our younger brothers.
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The most notable publications in Russian.
Young Savages: Life and Adventures of Teenagers in the Canadian Woods / Per. from English. L. A. Murakhina-Aksenova // Complete works in 10 books. - M.: Type. T-va I. D. Sytin, 1910. - Book 8. - (Free supplement to the magazine "Around the World" for 1910). One chapter ("The Sanger Witch") of the first part is missing. Not all illustrations.
Rolf in the woods. Stories / Per. from English. ed. N. Chukovsky // Collection. op. in 3 volumes. - M. - L.: State Publishing House, 1930. - T. I. - 462 p. A significant part is missing.
Animal Heroes: Stories / Per. from English. under ed. N. Chukovsky // Collection. op. in 3 volumes. - M. - L.: State Publishing House, 1929. - T. II. - 442 p.
Little savages or a story about how two boys led the life of Indians in the forest and what they learned / Ed. N. Chukovsky; per. from English. L. B. Khavkina; 2nd ed. // Collection. op. in 3 volumes. - M. - Petrograd: State Publishing House (Gosizdat), 1923. - T. III. - 547 p. - (Library for children and youth. Foreign writers). The entire first part ("Glenyan & Yan"), that is, 14 chapters, is missing. Otherwise, the text is almost complete, with the exception of some abbreviations, and the replacement of specific terms, in comparison with the 1910 edition and the English original. There are tone illustrations by the author. Pencil drawings - without a few, almost all. Not all illustrations have captions.
My life / Per. from English. A. Makarova. - Rostov-on-Don, 1957. The book is heavily truncated; the length is 186 pages (in other editions from 100 to 150) while the original is from 300 to 400. The first chapter describing life in the UK is cut almost completely, descriptions of domestic routine, technical details, inappropriate details for children, descriptions of shopping deals.
Little savages / Per. from English. N. Temchina. - M.: State Publishing House "Children's Literature" (Detgiz), 1960. - 239 p. - (School library). Some chapters are missing and the entire text is greatly reduced. There are discards of specific terminology and translation inaccuracies. There are no tone illustrations, pencil illustrations are greatly reduced and have no captions. The text of this edition was copied by all subsequent ones, but the author's illustrations were even more neglected.
Life and habits of wild animals. - M.: Knowledge, 1984.
Prairies of the Arctic: 2000 miles by boat in search of caribou. Description of a journey to the area north of Lake Aylmer / Per. from English. L. M. Bindeman. - M.: Progress, 1987. - 304 p.
Rolf in the Woods: A Tale / Per. from English. I. Gurova. - M.: Children's literature, 1992. - 287 p. - ISBN 5-08-001066-5. Complete edition.
Stories about animals. - M.: Azbuka, 2009, 2010. - 640 p. - (Series: "All about ..."). - ISBN 978-5-9985-0084-8. Contains almost 200 original author's drawings more than previous editions in Russian.
Little savages / Per. from English. L. A. Murakhina-Aksyonova; lit. edited by G. Hondkarian. - M.: ENAS-BOOK, 2012. - 256 p. (Series: "World Book"). - ISBN 978-5-91921-135-8 Text based on the 1910 edition, but subjected to "literary processing". There are cuts, including some technical details, compared to the English original. There are no copyright illustrations.
(1860-1946) American writer and naturalist
There are writers who have not created major works and yet have had a huge impact on the development of literature. Among them is Ernest Seton-Thompson. His merit lies in the fact that he was one of the first to truthfully describe the world and the habits of wild animals. It is from him that the animalistic genre originates in literature.
Despite the fact that Ernest Seton-Thompson is considered an American writer, he was born far from America, in the small English town of Southschild. His father was a prosperous shipowner. However, in the year when Ernest was five years old, his affairs were shaken, and he decided to seek his fortune overseas.
The first years of Ernest Seton-Thompson's parents lived on a farm near the town of Lindsay. Ernest will always remember this time as the happiest of all his childhood years. For the first time, the boy found himself in the wild and spent all his free time in the fields and forests, although, of course, he did not remain an ignoramus. Over the years, he learned to write and read and even started going to school.
In 1870, the life of the Thompson family changed dramatically. They moved to Canada and settled in Toronto. There, the father began to work in the city government, identifying the children in school. Moving to the city did not change Ernest's attitude to nature. He tried to spend every free minute outside the city or in the park. In one of the secluded corners of the park, the boy built himself a hut in which he spent all his free hours. This little hut became his second home. He made friends with animals, fed stray dogs and cats, observed their life and habits. Later, childhood impressions will be reflected in his story "The Royal Analostasis", in which the writer told the story of an ordinary cat.
City life did not benefit the boy: after five years, his health deteriorated greatly, and the doctors advised him to send Ernest to nature. The parents wrote to the new owners of their farm, and they agreed that Ernest should come to live with them, settling him along with their children. The interesting life on the farm was later described by Thompson in the book Little Savages.
Returning home to the city a year later, Ernest Seton-Thompson continued his studies at school and soon finished it with a commendable sheet. However, overwork took a toll on his health. He fell ill again and instead of going to university, he again went to the farm. But this time, the wild nature and clean air did not help him. Ernest's health deteriorated so much that he was forced to return to the city for serious treatment.
After recovery, the young man began to take lessons from the artist, because by that time he had firmly decided to go to art school. Already after the first course, Ernest received a gold medal, which allowed him to go to London to improve his skills. There Thompson entered the Royal School of Painting and Sculpture at the Royal Academy of Arts. He studied well and soon became one of the best students at the academy. In the same years, Ernest had another significant event. His drawings were seen by the director of the British Museum, and they shocked him so much that he gave the young man a lifetime certificate to visit all the repositories and the library of the museum so that he could draw animals.
It was during this time that Thompson developed an interest in ornithology. He began to read a lot about birds, studied all their species, redrawing pictures, drawing them from memory and from nature. However, continuous studies and a half-starved existence again shook his already poor health. And the doctors again advised him to stop studying and return home to Canada. Ernest had nothing to live on there, so he had to take on any job just to earn money. But most of all he liked to make drawings for greeting cards.
Soon Thompson's health improved, and he moved to a farm that belonged to his brother. It was there that Ernest Seton-Thompson met with the heroes of his works. On the farm, he wrote his first book, An Illustrated Description of the Birds of Manitoba. The publication of this book has become a real event in the scientific world.
Thompson met with the largest American scientists and received an order to complete drawings for an encyclopedic dictionary of zoology. This was followed by the fundamental encyclopedia "Guide to the Birds of America" and the book "Mammals of Manitoba".
Being engaged in illustrations, Seton-Thompson also found time to paint large pictures. With the money he received, he went to Europe and exhibited his painting “Sleeping Wolf” in Paris at a large art salon, which was enthusiastically received by critics. Thompson expected fame and glory here, especially since before him few artists took up the image of wildlife and wild animals. But he did not stay in Europe and soon returned to the United States.
In 1893, Seton-Thompson exhibited several paintings at the International Exhibition in Chicago. Seeing them, US President Theodore Roosevelt wished to meet with the artist and ordered him a portrait of a leader wolf. Now this picture is on display at the Theodore Roosevelt Gallery.
In the same year, Thompson was approached by the largest American publisher, Scribner. He invited the artist to publish a book of his stories with his own drawings. The success of Thompson's first book, My Wild Friends, exceeded all expectations. It was not only reprinted several times, but almost immediately translated into foreign languages.
Now fame and prosperity have come to Thompson. He buys a villa near the city of Santa Fe, where he settles with his adopted daughter Dee. There, Ernest Seton-Thompson transports his extensive library, as well as a kind of zoological museum: photographs, sketches of animals and birds, stuffed animals, samples of skins and bird eggs.
Based on the materials of his collections, he first publishes the book "The Life of Northern Animals", and then the fundamental encyclopedia "The Life of Wild Animals". For the first of these, Ernest Seton-Thompson receives the highest award of American naturalists - the gold "Bonfire Medal", and for the second - the gold medal "Elliott", America's highest award for scientific work.
In his villa, the writer lived without a break for several decades and died in 1946.
Ernest Seton-Thompson(English) Ernest Thompson Seton, born Ernest Evan Thompson- Ernest Evan Thompson; Ernest Thompson Seton is often found in literature) is a Canadian writer, animal painter, naturalist and public figure of British origin. One of the founders of the scouting movement in the United States. Since the United States played almost as significant a role in Seton's life as Canada, he can rightly be called an American writer as well.
Ernest Evan Thompson was born in the British city of South Shields. His father, Seton, came from an old English noble family. When Ernest was six years old, the family moved to Canada. Young Ernest often went into the woods to study and draw animals, mainly to avoid his violent father. Later, as a result of a rift between them, he changed his name to Ernest Thompson-Seton (or rather Thompson Seaton). In 1879, Ernest graduated from the Toronto College of Art.
Seton-Thompson's first literary work, The Life of the Prairie Grouse, was published in 1883. The collections Wild Animals As I Know Them (1898) and Lives of the Hunted (1901) brought fame to the writer in the United States and Canada. ), as well as the 8-volume work "The Life of Wild Beasts" (1925-1927). Illustrations for his stories and stories Seton very skillfully drew himself - his drawings are distinguished by accuracy and expressiveness. From 1890 to 1896 Seton studied fine arts in Paris.
Not being a fan of urban life, Seton lived for a long time in the forests and prairies. Wrote about 40 books, mostly about animals. He devoted several books to the life and folklore of the Indians and Eskimos. The themes of Indian life and life in nature, among wild animals, are combined in a fascinating and informative autobiographical book "Little Savages". Seton also published the books Biography of the Grizzly (1900), Birch Bark (1902), The Book of the Forest (1912), and others.
In 1906, the writer met Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scout movement. Together they actively promoted the ideology of life in harmony with nature.
Seton became one of the founders of the literary genre of works about animals; he had a powerful influence on many animal writers.
In 1896, Seton-Thompson married Grace Gallatin. On January 23, 1904, their only daughter, Ann, was born. Later she became famous under the name of Anya Seton (Anya Seton), as a best-selling author on historical and biographical topics. In 1935, Grace and Ernest divorced, and he soon married Julia M. Butry, who was also engaged in literary activity (by herself and in collaboration with her husband). They had no children of their own, but in 1938 they adopted a seven-year-old girl, Beulah (Dee) Seton, (married Dee Seton-Barber). In 1972, Soviet journalists Vasily Peskov and Boris Strelnikov visited her and they described this meeting in their book "Land Beyond the Ocean". Anya Seaton died in 1990 and Dee Seton-Barber in 2006.
Ernest Seton-Thompson died on October 23, 1946 in the American city of Santa Fe (New Mexico). His body was cremated and the urn with the ashes was kept in the house for fourteen years. In 1960, on the centenary of the writer's birth, his daughter Dee and grandson Seton Cottiere (Ani's son) took to the skies in an airplane and scattered the ashes over the hills of Seton Village.
Biography
Seton-Thompson
(Seton Thompson) Ernest (August 14, 1860, South Shields, Great Britain - October 23, 1946, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA), Canadian writer, animal painter, naturalist. In 1879 he graduated from the Toronto College of Art. For a long time he lived in forests and prairies. Wrote about 40 books, mostly about animals. The narrative was accompanied by precise and skillful drawings. He devoted several books to the life and folklore of the Indians and Eskimos. The first work of S.-T. - "The Life of a Prairie Grouse" (1883).
Fame brought him the book "Wild Animals as I Know Them" (1898), "The Life of Those Who Are Hunted" (1901), as well as the 8-volume work "The Life of Wild Animals" (1925−27). He published the books Biography of the Grizzly (1900), Beresta (1902), The Book of the Forest (1912) and others. Scientific accuracy in the books of S.-T. combined with an entertaining presentation. Influenced many animal writers.
Ernest Seton-Thompson was born in South Shields on August 14, 1860. His father, Seton, was of a noble family. The family moved to Canada when the guy was barely six years old. The father applied power to his wife and son, so Ernest spent most of his time in the forest, sketching and studying its inhabitants. Tired of domestic problems, the guy changes his name to Ernest Thompson-Seton (Thompson Seaton). In 1879 he was educated at the Toronto College of Art.
In 1883, the writer publishes his first work - "The Life of a Prairie Grouse". Then, thanks to his childhood observations of forest life, he writes the collections "Wild Animals as I Know Them" in 1898, "The Life of Those Who Are Hunted" in 1901 and "The Life of Wild Beasts" in 1925, which bring Ernest fame in Canada and USA. The illustrations in the books were written by the writer himself, because six years of studying fine arts from 1890 to 1896 in Paris were not in vain.
Being a fan of forest life, the poet spends more and more time there. He writes about 40 books, most of which describe the inhabitants of the forest. In a couple of books he described the life of the Eskimos and Indians. The theme of their life and life in the wild, Ernest describes in the book "Little Savages".
Ernest meets Grace Gallatin, whom he marries in 1896. As a result, the only daughter Ann is born on January 23, 1904. After being married for 39 years, Ernest and Grace divorce, and a little later he ties the knot with Julia M. Bathry. The couple could not have children of their own, so they came to the decision of adoption, and, in 1938, they adopted Beulah (Dee) Seton.
Ernest Seton-Thompson dies in America on October 23, 1946 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was cremated with an urn containing his ashes preserved for fourteen years, and in 1960 his daughter and grandson scattered his ashes from an airplane over the hills of Seaton Village.
