Three men have done more than any others to inspire our generation with the love of nature. They are Henry D. Thoreau, John Burroughs, and William Hamilton Gibson. Thoreau, when the generation was young, challenged it to come out of doors, live in a shanty, and see as much of the world as he saw. John Burroughs, in later years, has acted as guide to a multitude of minds, eager to be “personally conducted” to field and forest. William Hamilton Gibson, besides winning many feet into those “highways and byways” whose charms he taught us to feel, was fortunate in his exceptional power to bring nature to the very eyes of men in the works of his pencil, with which he made luminous--literally “illustrated”--his pages. This alone would be a justification of some account of his life and work. But in addition to this claim on the interest of the public, those who knew him are aware of others;--a personality of singular charm and forcefulness; a career quite marvelous in its swift and sure achievements; a genius as rare as it was versatile; a devotion to art and to study which fairly wore him out in its exactions on his energy; an ideal which instructs while it shames our sordidness and materialism. His personality will surely grow upon the American people as time gives a true perspective to his life and work. Already we can see something of his conspicuousness and his right to a place in the foremost group of our nature-prophets. In that great trio, Thoreau is the philosopher, Burroughs the poet and man of letters, Gibson the artist-naturalist. In these days when so many are entering into the inheritance which Gibson helped to secure, it is fitting that nature-lovers should hear the story of his fruitful life. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. A FORTUNATE BOYHOOD 1 II. CALLING AND ELECTION 24 III. A QUICK SUCCESS 49 IV. WITH PENCIL AND BRUSH 81 V. THE OPEN EYE 108 VI. THE ACCIDENT OF AUTHORSHIP 139 VII. THE WORKMAN AND HIS WORK 166 VIII. THE PERSONAL SIDE 200 IX. AFTERGLOW 237 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS WILLIAM HAMILTON GIBSON _Frontispiece_ Age, 41 TO FACE PAGE THE GUNNERY 6 Washington, Connecticut WILLIAM HAMILTON GIBSON 18 Age, 13 WILLIAM HAMILTON GIBSON 28 Age, 17