Naturalist Ernest Thompson Seton created a new literary form when he began writing stories about his adventures with wild animals in the 1890s. His first stories were compiled in the book, ‘Wild Animals I Have Known, ‘ that became popular throughout the United States and Canada. The stories are spellbinding chronicles of wild animal courage, intelligence, and endurance as they valiantly attempt to escape the traps, poisons, guns, and lariats of their human pursuers. Seton was renowned for his scientific studies of American wildlife. His stories about wild animals, however, were a mix of fact and fiction that heightened the drama of each animal’s life or death struggle. During the 1890s Seton traveled to the American West and from his experiences wrote the thrilling tales contained in this collection. The exploits of Lobo (wolf), The Pacing Mustang, Tito (coyote), Monarch (grizzly), Coaly-Bay (horse), Johnny Bear, and Badlands Billy (wolf) are presented in their entirety along with many of Seton’s drawings. For this collection Stephen Zimmer contributed a biographical introduction of Ernest Thompson Seton and the historical background for each story.
Circa l’autore
Stephen Zimmer comes from four generations of West Texas cattle ranchers. Beginning in 1976 he spent twenty-five years as Director of Museums at New Mexico’s Philmont Scout Ranch. He has been studying the history of the New Mexico cattle frontier for more than thirty years. He has driven through or ridden horseback in all kinds of weather over the land where outfits ran cattle in the last decades of the 19th century in order to better understand what life was like for the men and women who worked the range. He lives outside of Cimarron, New Mexico on his Double Z Bar Ranch where he writes about western art and cowboy life. His articles have appeared in ‘Cowboy Magazine, ‘ ‘Western Horseman, ‘ ‘New Mexico Magazine, ‘ and ‘Wild West’ among others. ‘Parker’s Colt: A Novel of New Mexico Ranch Life, ‘ ‘Cowboy Days, Stories of the New Mexico Range, ‘ and ‘All in a Day’s Riding, Stories of the New Mexico Range, ‘ were also published by Sunstone Press.