by David L. Witt | May 14, 2021 | Guest Writers
How to Tell the Birds from the Flowers, Robert W. Wood, 1907 (Check out Wood’s book.) Unfortunately for Seton, the Nature Faker controversy just would not die down. Having seemingly run its course in June 1907, it flared back up in the September issue of...
by David L. Witt | May 11, 2021 | Guest Writers
John Burroughs at Wyndygoul, Seton’s estate, undated Like a case of poison ivy that will not go away, John Burroughs continued his attacks on the nature fakers in February 1904, this time in The Century Magazine. This time he focused his fury on William Long...
by David L. Witt | May 3, 2021 | Seton Essays
Seton Illustration from The Century Magazine The revered, elderly, lyrical naturalist John Burroughs attacked Seton as a “Nature Faker” in an article entitled “Real and Sham Natural History,” appearing in the March 1903 issue of Atlantic Monthly. This hurt...
by David L. Witt | Apr 26, 2021 | Guest Writers
Bear camouflaged within pine branches This is the second installment of John Burroughs’ 1903 attack on the credentials of Ernest Thompson Seton as a legitimate “naturalist.” Burroughs published a long essay calling into the question to accuracy of several writers. At...
by David L. Witt | Apr 23, 2021 | Guest Writers
Tamiasciurus hudsonicus in adopted natural habitat outside my window By the beginning of 1903 Seton had experienced a four-year run of extraordinary book sales successes beginning with Wild Animals I Have Known. While this good fortune would last for another two...
