Ernest Thompson Seton

Burroughs Award-winning author Ernest Thompson Seton was born on August 14, 1860, in South Shields, Durham, England. His parents wanted him to be an artist and he trained diligently for that career. However, from his youth he was also fascinated by natural history. He learned the ways of the natural world in his explorations of the Canadian prairie. He found a way to combine his interests and his talents in his life and career as an illustrator, naturalist, writer, and educator.

In his life, he published sixty books and almost 400 magazine articles. He was the second recipient of the prestigious Burroughs Award for natural history writing. He received the award in 1927 for his book, Lives of Game Animals. His book, Wild Animals I Have Known, first published in 1898, is still in print. He also wrote the first edition of the Boy Scout Handbook.

After his family immigrated to Canada, Seton visited the United States for the first time in 1883. In the late 1880’s Seton did 1000 drawings of mammals for the Century Dictionary. In the 1890’s Seton went to Paris to study art. While there he wrote and illustrated his first book, The Art Anatomy of Animals. His paintings focused on natural themes, particularly wolves, which were his lifelong study. Later in life he called himself "Black Wolf."

As a naturalist, Seton urged the conservation of the Canadian prairie. He saw it threatened by development and farming. He advocated setting aside preserves where nature and native people could live in their traditional ways. He believed that the native peoples of North America had developed wisdom and skills which were sacred and in harmony with the natural world. He worked to keep alive this knowledge and wisdom by advocating reservations where native people would be left alone and by including native wisdom and skills in his writing for the Boy Scouts and the Woodcrafters.

In 1902, he founded the Woodcraft Indians, an organization for boys. In 1906, he met Baden-Powell in England and began to help organize the Boy Scouts. Many of his ideas were incorporated into the Boy Scouts and he wrote many of their first instructional materials. He served on the founding committee of the Boy Scouts in North America in 1910 and as Chief Scout from 1910-1915. He left the Boy Scouts to continue to develop his own organization, the Woodcraft League of America, into a co-educational, all-age movement.

Seton moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1930 and became a United States Citizen in 1931. He built a dwelling that looked like a castle in Santa Fe. He continued to write and to train Woodcraft leaders until his death in 1946.

As can be seen in a listing of books he wrote, Seton focused on mammals in his writing and study. Seton was instrumental in popularizing the animal story type of nature writing. He told the life stories of animals from the animals’ points of view. This technique made the animal world come to life for thousands of young people. He illustrated his own writing, often including small drawings in the margins as well as larger illustrations. He wrote often for children and youth, desiring to impart to them the love of nature that had so guided his life.

Works of Ernest Thompson Seton

Several of Seton’s works are online at The Seton Institute and Wickiup.

1886 Mammals Of Manitoba
1891 Birds Of Manitoba
1894 How to Catch Wolves
1896 Studies in the Art Anatomy of Animals
1898 Wild Animals I Have Known
1899 The Trail of The Sandhill Stag
1899 Lobo, Rag, and Vixen
1900 The Wild Animal Play For Children (a musical)
1900 The Biography of A Grizzly
1900 Lobo
1900 Ragylug
1900 American Printing House For The Blind
1901 Lives of the Hunted
1902 Krag and Johnny Bear
1903 How to Make A Real Indian Teepee
1903 How Boys Can Form A Band of Indians
1904 The Red Book
1904 The Big Bear of Tallac
1905 Woodmyth and Fable
1905 Animal Heroes
1906 The Birchbark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians
1907 The Natural History of the Ten Commandments
1909 Fauna of Manitoba
1909 Biography of A Silver Fox
1909 Life-Histories of Northern Animals (2 Volumes)
1910 BSA: A Handbook of Woodcraft, Scouting, and Life-craft
1910 The Forester's Manual
1911 The Arctic Prairies
1911 Rolf In The Woods
1912 The Book of Woodcraft and Indian Lore
1912 The Red Lodge
1913 Wild Animals At Home
1915 The Slum Cat
1915 Legend of the White Reindeer
1915 The Manual of the Woodcraft Indians
1916 Wild Animal Ways
1916 Woodcraft Manual for Girls
1917 The Preacher of Cedar Mountain
1917 Woodcraft Manual for Boys
1918 Sign Talk of the Indians
1919 The Laws and Honors of the Little Lodge of Woodcraft
1921 The Brownie Wigwam: The Rules of the Brownies.
1921 The Buffalo Wind
1921 Woodland Tales
1922 Bannertail: The Story of A Gray Squirrel
1923 The Ten Commandments in the Animal World
1928 Animals Worth Knowing
1926 Lives of Game Animals (Winner of Burroughs Medal for Nature Writing)
1930 Billy the Dog That Made Good
1930 Cute Coyote and Other Stories
1930 Lobo, Bingo, The Pacing Mustang
1932 Famous Animal Stories
1936 The Gospel of the Redman, with Julia Seton
1937 Biography of An Arctic Fox
1937 Great Historic Animals
1937 Mainly About Wolves
1937 Pictographs of the Old Southwest
1938 Buffalo Wind
1940 Trail and Camp-Fire Stories
1940 Trail of an Artist-Naturalist: The Autobiography of Ernest Thompson Seton
1945 Santanna, The Hero Dog of France
1949 The Best of Ernest Thompson Seton
1954 Ernest Thompson Seton's America; Selections of the writings of the artist-naturalist