Seton, Ernest Thompson

Ernest Thompson (1860-), an author and artist. He was born in England; he studied at the Royal Academy, London; he spent three years in zoological study in Manitoba, and later studied in Paris under French artists. His works have been published in the United States, so that he is rather cosmopolitan. He is known for his numerous drawings of animals and birds, and for his paintings of wolves. His writings on animal subjects have been popular, and display marked literary merit. They have been criticized for inaccuracy in matters of natural history. The author himself states that his aim has been to "emphasize our kinship with the animals by showing that in them we can find the virtues most admired in man." He also states that his accounts of animals are true, "The chief liberty taken is in ascribing to one animal the adventures of many." Wild Animals I Have Known, The Trail of the Sandhill Stag, The Biography of a Grizzly, Lives of the Hunted, are among Seton's books, and well repay the reading. Seton is one of the writers whom Roosevelt and Burroughs characterize as "nature-fakirs."