In his varied and exciting career Ernest Thompson Seton was a great naturalist, a distinguished painter of wild life and a best-selling writer of animal stories. He was also organizer of the Woodcraft Indians which later became the Boy Scouts of America.

As a child Ernest roamed the woods of Canada, dreaming of becoming a naturalist but never hoping to succeed, since his father bitterly opposed this dream. Young Seton slipped off into the woods to study nature in secret, and at sixteen was a self-trained scientist, keeping accurate accounts of every animal, bird and plant he saw. He did not neglect school, for education was his only means of escaping intolerable conditions at home, and he hoped to persuade his father that there was a future in being a naturalist. However, his father insisted that he study art and sent him to London where Seton won a scholarship to the famous Royal Academy.

Here he combined his two extraordinary talents — art and science, painting the animals he knew so intimately and loved so well. After a short stay in Canada, he went on to New York where, unknown and penniless, he fought for recognition as a writer and an illustrator. Just when he began to sell his animal stories he was threatened by blindness.

Indomitably Seton continued working and achieved the fame he deserved. He wrote twenty-four books, lectured to enthralled audiences, amassed a fortune. Always he turned adversity to success. When a gang of neighboring boys defaced his Connecticut home, he refused to go to the police, for at heart he was still a boy himself. He invited the culprits to camp on his property and so fascinated them with Indian lore and outdoor activities that valor replaced vandalism — and the Boy Scouts were born.

Here is the colorful story of a man who lived adventurously, succeeded in spite of a physical handicap, and became legend among naturalists and lovers of wild animals and the great outdoors.

From the dust jacket