Some Animal Stories : Tales of the Northern Woods and Their Beasts

Stories of the northern woods in which the animals are neither symbols nor pets: a strayed ox and a panther, a porcupine, a skunk, a star-nosed mole, a she-bear, and Red Fox against an eagle. Charles G. D. Roberts and Ernest Thompson Seton between them invented the realistic animal story, and were attacked for it by Roosevelt as nature-fakers. Roberts's animals do not think in words, which was the innovation. Fifty-six plates of woodland and coast by painters such as George Inness and Winslow Homer run alongside the tales, matching the wild settings Roberts and Seton made their own.