Ernest Seton - Thompson was born on August 14, 1860 in South Shields (County Durham, England), but after 6 years his family moved to Canada. His father was engaged in farming, their family was large, and the impressionable boy often played with his brothers in the forest. Animals, birds, Indians and hunting - that's what attracted the future writer from childhood.
Seton - Thompson was not only an interesting writer but also an artist. Until 1896, he studied fine arts in London, Paris, New York, after at the age of 19 he graduated from the College of Art in Toronto. Drawings by Seton - Thompson on the margins of the books convey not only the appearance of an animal or bird, but also their character, mood and attitude of the author to them, full of love and good-natured humor. The heroes of Seton - Thompson were a variety of animals, and he loved them all. The writer was not afraid to paint the life of forests, mountains, steppes as it is, with all its cruelties. Often, his animals - the heroes - die at the end of the story. But this is the truth of life, the death of the heroes of Seton - Thompson drowns in the general stream of life and does not leave a feeling of hopelessness.
Ernest was very capable. At the age of six, he read the first line in the newspaper and began carving birds and animals out of wood. Ernest was not only a capable, but also a stubborn boy. Having seen the book "Birds of Canada" in the store, he decided to buy it at all costs. The book cost one dollar. To collect this money, Ernest sold his rabbits, transferred firewood to neighbors, collected insects for a collection of one Englishwoman and for a month competed with his brother in chopping firewood, earning the missing cents.
And here is the coveted book in hand. He traveled extensively, hunted and wrote about forty books, including the eight-volume Life of Wild Animals.
Thompson led a rich, one might say, vagrant life, he roamed the prairie, he could never live long in large cities - he was inevitably drawn to Canadian and American hunters, farmers, Indians, and most importantly - to animals. In Canada, he received the position of "state naturalist", which gave him the opportunity to devote himself to the study of animals. Seton - Thompson wrote a number of scientific works on zoology. For these works, he was awarded the highest award awarded in the United States for scientific work - the Eliot Gold Medal.
Trying to stop the senseless and aimless extermination of wild animals, Seton - Thompson organized the "League of Forest Science" in Canada, the purpose of which was to study the native nature of young people and protect animals. Seton - Thompson created real biographies of animals, put them next to people in his works, people and animals were with Seton - Thompson partners, friends. The writer was convinced that every animal is a precious heritage that people have no right to destroy and torture. All his life he was possessed by an unquenchable passion to solve all the secrets and riddles in the life of birds and animals, a passion to tell people about these secrets and to convey the beauty of animals in drawings and carved wood figures.
Seton died in Santa Fe (New Mexico) on October 23, 1946.
Ernest Seton-Thompson biography
Ernest Seton-Thompson- Canadian writer, animal painter, naturalist and public figure. One of the founders of the scout movement in the United States.
Born August 14, 1860 in the British city of South Shields. His father, Seton, was of a noble family. The family moved to Canada when the guy was barely six years old. As a child, Ernest often went to the forest to study and paint animals, avoiding his abusive father.
Ernest graduated from the Toronto College of Art in 1879.
Seton-Thompson's first literary work, The Life of the Meadow Grouse, was published in 1883. Fame in the USA and Canada brought the writer the collections Wild Animals As I Know Them (1898), The Life of Those Hunted (1901), as well as the 8-volume work Life of Wild Animals (1925-1927).
From 1890 to 1896, Seton studied fine arts in Paris.
Not being a fan of city life, Ernest lived for a long time in the forests and prairies. He has written about 40 books, mainly about animals. He devoted several books to the life and folklore of the Indians - "Little Savages". Ernest also published the books Biography of the Grizzly Bear (1900), The Birch (1902), The Book of the Forest (1912) and many other books.
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-Thompson became one of the pioneers of the literary genre of works about animals.
Seton-Thompson passed away October 23, 1946 in the American city of Santa Fe (New Mexico).
Personal life Ernest Seton-Thompson
In 1896, Seton-Thompson married Grace Gallatin. Their only daughter, Ann, was born on January 23, 1904. She later rose to fame under the name Anya Seton as the bestselling author of history and biography. In 1935, Grace and Ernest divorced, and he soon married Julia M. Batri, who was also engaged in literary activities (herself and in collaboration with her husband). They did not have children of their own, but in 1938 they adopted a seven-year-old girl, Beulu (Dee) Seton, (married to Dee Seton-Barber).
Ernest Seton-Thompson (née Ernest Evan Thompson) is a Canadian writer, animal painter, naturalist, and social activist of British descent; one of the founders of the scout movement in the USA - born August 14, 1860 in the city of South Shields (UK).
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 paint animals, mostly avoiding his abusive father. Later, as a result of the alienation between his parents, 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 Meadow Grouse, was published in 1883... Fame in the USA and Canada brought the writer the collections "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" ( 1925-1927 ). Ernest drew illustrations for his stories and stories very skillfully - his drawings are distinguished by their accuracy and expressiveness. 1890 to 1896 Seton studied fine arts in Paris.
Not being a fan of city life, Ernest lived for a long time in the forests and prairies. He has written about 40 books, mainly about animals. He devoted several books to the life and folklore of Indians and Eskimos. Themes of Indian life and life in nature, among wild animals, are combined in a fascinating and informative autobiographical book "Little Savages". Ernest also published the books Biography of the Grizzly Bear ( 1900 ), "Beryosta" ( 1902 ), "The Book of the Forest" ( 1912 ) and many other books.
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-Thompson became one of the pioneers of the literary genre of works about animals; he had a powerful influence on many animal writers.
In 1896 Seton-Thompson married Grace Gallatin. January 23, 1904 their only daughter Ann was born. She later rose to fame under the name Anya Seton as the bestselling author of history and biography. In 1935 Grace and Ernest divorced, and he soon married Julia M. Batri, who was also engaged in literary activities (herself and in collaboration with her husband). They didn't have children of their own, but in 1938 they adopted a seven-year-old girl, Beulu (Dee) Seton, (married to Dee Seton-Barber). Anya Seaton passed away in 1990 and Dee Seton-Barber in 2006.
Ernest Seton-Thompson died October 23, 1946 in Santa Fe (New Mexico, USA). 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 birth of the writer, his daughter Dee and grandson Seaton Cottier (son of Ani) took to the skies on an airplane and scattered the ashes over the hills of Seton Village.
Seton-Thompson developed the "Pioneering" educational system associated with games and life in nature. He named it so in honor of the famous novel by F. Cooper "Pioneers", which tells about the life of the first settlers in North America. Pioneering (literally means pioneering) - survival in the wild, camouflage, tactical games, hiking, construction of crossings and sheds. (Later in Baden-Powell, Pioneering was simply the scout discipline of building patents - constructing buildings from bars and ropes).
The author of books about animals and animal painter, naturalist scientist, founder of ecological thinking, E. Seton-Thompson became the founder and leader of the Pathfinder movement in North America. In his works, E. Seton-Thompson relied on the traditions of the Indians. Having started in 1900 fighting to save his own estate from the barbarism of the surrounding boys, on the basis of the experience gained with the children of farmers Seton-Thompson developed a program of play education in nature. After publication in 1902-1906 In the journals of a series of articles, the movement took shape as a nationwide American organization headed by the author. A general game guide was published, the Birch Bark Scroll, and the organization was named the League of Forest Craftsmen.
In 1906 Seton-Thompson went on a lecture tour to England, where he gave the British General Baden-Powell his materials for the formation of a similar organization in England. After the publication of Baden-Powell's book "Scouting for Boys" in 1908, a case of plagiarism and distortion of Seton-Thompson's ideas arose, although he refused to take legal action.
Since 1908 in the United States, the Baden-Powell scouting model also spread. As a result, Seton-Thompson retired from public affairs, did not organize anything else, citing lack of time. Seton-Thompson was a non-military man, he hardly liked the militarized children's meetings, not for that he bought a large plot of land, set up his own reserve.
Works:
Mammals of Manitoba ( 1886
)
Birds of Manitoba, Foster ( 1891
)
How to Catch Wolves ( 1894
)
Studies in the Art Anatomy of Animals ( 1896
)
Wild Animals I Have Known ( 1898
)
The Trail of the Sandhill Stag ( 1899
)
The Wild Animal Play for Children (Musical) ( 1900
)
The Biography of a Grizzly ( 1900
)
Bird Portraits ( 1901
)
Lives of the hunted (1901
)
Twelve Pictures of Wild Animals ( 1901
)
Krag and Johnny Bear ( 1902
)
How to Play Indian ( 1903
)
Two Little Savages ( 1903
)
How to Make a Real Indian Teepee ( 1903
)
How Boys Can Form a Band of Indians ( 1903
)
The Red Book ( 1904
)
Monarch, The Big Bear of Tallac ( 1904
)
Woodmyth and Fable, Century ( 1905
)
Animal Heroes ( 1905
)
The birch-bark roll of the Woodcraft Indians, containing their constitution, laws, games, and deeds ( 1907
)
The Natural History of the Ten Commandments ( 1907
)
Fauna of Manitoba, British Assoc. Handbook ( 1909
)
Biography of a Silver Fox ( 1909
)
Life-Histories of Northern Animals (2 volumes) ( 1909
)
Boy Scouts of America: Official Handbook, with General Sir Baden-Powell ( 1910
)
The Forester's Manual ( 1910
)
The Arctic Prairies ( 1911
)
Rolf in the Woods ( 1911
)
1912
)
The Red Lodge ( 1912
)
Wild Animals at Home ( 1913
)
The Slum Cat ( 1915
)
Legend of the White Reindeer ( 1915
)
The Manual of the Woodcraft Indians ( 1915
)
Wild Animal Ways ( 1916
)
Woodcraft Manual for Girls ( 1916
)
The Preacher of Cedar Mountain ( 1917
)
Woodcraft Manual for Boys; the Sixteenth Birch Bark Roll ( 1917
)
The Woodcraft Manual for Boys; the Seventeenth Birch Bark Roll ( 1918
)
The Woodcraft Manual for Girls; the Eighteenth Birch Bark Roll ( 1918
)
Sign Talk of the Cheyenne Indians and Other Cultures ( 1918
)
The Laws and Honors of the Little Lodge of Woodcraft ( 1919
)
The Brownie Wigwam; The Rules of the Brownies ( 1921
)
The Buffalo Wind ( 1921
)
Woodland Tales ( 1921
)
The Book of Woodcraft ( 1921
)
The Book of Woodcraft and Indian Lore ( 1922
)
Bannertail: The Story of a Gray Squirrel ( 1922
)
Manual of the Brownies 6th edition ( 1922
)
The Ten Commandments in the Animal World ( 1923
)
Animals ( 1926
)
Animals Worth Knowing ( 1928
)
Lives of Game Animals (4 volumes) ( 1925-1928
)
Blazes on the Trail ( 1928
)
Krag, The Kootenay Ram and Other Stories ( 1929
)
Billy the Dog That Made Good ( 1930
)
Cute Coyote and Other Stories ( 1930
)
Lobo, Bingo, The Pacing Mustang ( 1930
)
Famous Animal Stories ( 1932
)
Animals Worth Knowing ( 1934
)
Johnny Bear, Lobo and Other Stories ( 1935
)
The Gospel of the Redman, with Julia Seton ( 1936
)
Biography of An Arctic Fox ( 1937
)
Great Historic Animals ( 1937
)
Mainly about Wolves ( 1937
)
Pictographs of the Old Southwest ( 1937
)
Buffalo Wind ( 1938
)
Trail and Camp-Fire Stories ( 1940
)
Trail of an Artist-Naturalist: The Autobiography of Ernest Thompson Seton ( 1940
)
Santanna, The Hero Dog of France ( 1945
)
Biography
Seton-Thompson
(Seton Thompson) Ernest (08/14/1860, South Shields, UK - 10/23/1946, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA), Canadian writer, animal painter, naturalist. In 1879 he graduated from the Toronto College of Art. He lived for a long time in the forests and prairies. He has written about 40 books, mainly about animals. The narration was accompanied by precise and skillful drawings. He devoted several books to the life and folklore of Indians and Eskimos. The first work of S.-T. - "Life of the meadow grouse" (1883).
He became famous for his books Wild Animals As I Know Them (1898), The Lives of Those Hunted (1901), as well as the 8-volume work Life of Wild Animals (1925-27). Published the books "Biography of the Grizzly" (1900), "Beresta" (1902), "Book of the Forest" (1912), etc. Scientific accuracy in the books of S.-T. combined with an entertaining presentation. Influenced many animal writers.
Ernest Seton-Thompson was born in Great Britain, 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 strength 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 Meadow Grouse. Later, thanks to his childhood observations about forest life, he wrote the collections "Wild animals as I know them" in 1898, "The life of those who are hunted" in 1901 and "The life of wild animals" in 1925, which brought Ernest fame in Canada and the 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 a girl named Grace Gallatin, whom he marries in 1896. As a result, only daughter Ann is born on January 23, 1904. Having been married for 39 years, Ernest and Grace divorced, and a little later he ties his life by marriage with Julia M. Batri. The couple could not have children of their own, so they came up with an adoption decision and, in 1938, they adopt Beulah (Dee) Seton.
Ernest Seton-Thompson dies in America on October 23, 1946 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was cremated, keeping an urn containing his ashes for fourteen years, and in 1960 his daughter and grandson scattered his ashes from an airplane over the Seaton Village hills.
Ernest Seton-Thompson was born (1860-1946) in England, in the small town of South Shilds. But he was not English by birth. His ancestors were from Scotland. Legends about the glorious past were lovingly kept in the family, as well as about the hunting successes of many of their members who belonged to the 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-Thompson restored the old family name, retaining for some time a double surname, under which he established himself as a writer in world literature.
As a person equally gifted, he told about his life in the book “The Path of the Artist-Naturalist” (1941), written by him in his declining years, in the Russian translation “My Life”.
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-Thompson was the youngest, tenth child. Already at an early age, he was imbued with love for animals. If only he cried bitterly, he had only to say: "Look, bird!" or show some insect to shut up. In winter, as he recalled, his mother would, wrapping him in a blanket, tell him to think of himself as a tree. Having entered 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 an episode of the bloody massacre, in which he himself participated, over the neighboring chickens who got lost on their site. Later, there was 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-Thompson's childhood, his father's affairs deteriorated, and when the boy was six years old, the whole family moved to Canada in search of happiness. They first settled in Lindsay, Ontario, and four years ago they moved to Toronto, then a small town surrounded by forests.
This move to Canada determined the future of the writer. The boy found himself in completely unusual conditions for him. A new world of forests was opened to him, where there were many equal animals and birds.
Young Ernest remembered most of all how the hands of his parents and brothers built the first house, 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. I 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. By the time he graduated from school, he knew that he would become a naturalist. But my father was against it, because this profession did not provide an opportunity to earn a lot of money. He believed that it was better to study as an artist by painting his favorite animals. So he started painting. He was taught by a local master. The young man enters the local art school, where he receives a gold medal.
In 1879 Ernest went to London to study at the Royal Academy of Arts. But only the next year he was enrolled and received the opportunity to take 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 strained his strength, and he was forced to return home in 1882.
Seton-Thompson settled in Manitoba and returned to his hobby of watching animals. At this time he wrote and published many articles about animals, and in 1886 his first book "Mammals of Manitoba" was published, after which a number of scientific publications soon appeared.
In 1898, Seton-Thompson published the book "Animals I Knew" (in Russian translation "My Wild Friends"), which made people start talking about him as a writer who rediscovered the animal world for man. After her appeared such books as: "The Fate of the Persecuted" (1901), "Animal Heroes" (1905), "Wild Animals at Home", which only strengthened this impression about him.
The main characters of Seton-Thompson - not only one, two, but several dozen books - are animals. Sometimes domesticated, but mostly wild, forest, which modern people, as a rule, had to see only in the zoo, in a small and uncomfortable cage.
Seton-Thompson describes their life in freedom, where they appear in all their glory, in no way inferior to a person, but mainly surpassing her, with their special character, habits, with their unique character, with a unique fate, capricious turns which is captured by no less than the intrigues 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 guesses all the tricks of the hunters, and his girlfriend Blanca; coyote Tito; Rabbit Jack and many others who seem to be gifted with extraordinary qualities, but the stories themselves are striking, above all, in their realism. These are "non-contrived stories". The writer speaks only of what he saw, in which he himself took part. But both the vision and his involvement are special. He saw the world around him through the eyes of a naturalist not just loved by nature, not touched by a person, he carefully studies it in all its manifestations, which tries to comprehend its secrets, approaches it with scientific objectivity.
Seton-Thompson carefully studied the habits of the most equal animals and birds. When he wrote about animals, readers were amazed at the author's observation. Thompson wrote about everything as if he himself was once a raven, 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 resort to 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 "olyudnuvav" his animals. Moreover, the writer drew beautifully. As a rule, he illustrated his books himself and left thousands of pictures from life.
But animals weren't Seton-Thompson's only hobby. His other passion was the Indians, their way of life, their "forest science": The writer deeply admired how the Indians, whose life took place in the forests, among the wild, knew how to read it like an open book, penetrating all its secrets. He devoted many years to studying their lives.
All this was reflected in the books of Seton-Thompson, which were no less famous than his stories about animals. Among these books were: "Birch Bark Scroll of Indians" (1907), "Book of Forest Science and Indian Wisdom" (1912), "Textbook of the Devil" (1912), "The Gospel of the Chervonoshkiry" (1938). The book "Rolf in the Woods" (1911) is also referred to as books about Indians.
"Lobo"
The protagonist of this story is the huge leader of the pack of gray wolves - Lobo, who ravaged the Kurrumpo Valley for many years. Its loud roar, well known to all shepherds, frightened the entire populated region of northern New Mexico. His small flock was also well known, in which there was the she-wolf Blanca, a friend of Lobo, who raided herds of cows and flocks of sheep not only for the sake of need, but for entertainment, while eating only selected pieces of meat from young heifers. Thanks to their leaders, these wolves were elusive: they never fell into traps, did not eat dead meat and seemed to mock all the tricks that herders and hunters tried to use them. For the narrator of this story, a former wolf hunter, the leader evoked a sense of respect for his sharp wit, resourcefulness and ingenuity. But the hero arrived at the ranch to help the farmers in the fight against this furious flock. Many setbacks befell him before he realized what hook he could hook the leader on. During these searches, together with the author, thanks to his naturalistic descriptions, we have the opportunity to imagine rocky mountains where wolves were hiding, farm estates, pictures of massacres of sheep, etc. The narrator studied the character of the leader well and, like a quick-witted hunter, understood his weak point (as a loner, he was invincible and could only perish because of the negligence of a comrade he trusted). A brilliant plan worked perfectly, Blanca served as bait, and Lobo, looking for her, did fall into the trap. But the death of this giant wolf is a real tragedy. Betrayal of friends, contempt for those who won, longing for the lost beloved and, finally, a worthy death cause genuine regret before this predatory beast.
MAIN WORKS:
"The Path of the Naturalist Artist", "My Life", "My Wild Friends", "The Fate of the Persecuted", "Animal Heroes", "Wild Animals at Home", "Birch Bark Scroll of Indians", "Book of Forest Science and Indian Wisdom "," The textbook of the devil "," The gospel of the chervonoshkiry "," Rolf in the woods ".
LITERATURE:
1. Stories about animals. - M., 1966;
2. My life. Animal heroes. The fate of the persecuted. My wild friends. - M., 1982.
