What do you think?
Rate this book
Wild Animals I Have Known
An immediate success upon its first publication in 1898, Wild Animals I Have Known gave the animal story new credibility and power as a literary genre and remains Seton’s best-loved work.
255 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1898
333 people are currently reading
2172 people want to read
About the author
Ernest Thompson Seton
613 books111 followersErnest Thompson Seton was a Scots-Canadian (and naturalized U.S. citizen) who became a noted author, wildlife artist, founder of the Woodcraft Indians, and one of the founding pioneers of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Seton also heavily influenced Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting. His notable books related to Scouting include The Birch Bark Roll and The Boy Scout Handbook. He is responsible for the strong influence of American Indian culture in the BSA.
He was born Ernest Evan Thompson in South Shields, County Durham (now part of South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear), England of Scottish parents and his family emigrated to Canada in 1866. As a youth, he retreated to the woods to draw and study animals as a way of avoiding his abusive father. He won a scholarship in art to the Royal Academy in London, England.
He later rejected his father and changed his name to Ernest Thompson Seton. He believed that Seton had been an important name in his paternal line. He developed a fascination with wolves while working as a naturalist for Manitoba. He became successful as a writer, artist and naturalist, and moved to New York City to further his career. Seton later lived at Wyndygoul, an estate that he built in Cos Cob, a section of Greenwich, Connecticut. After experiencing vandalism by the local youth, Seton invited them to his estate for a weekend where he told stories of the American Indians and of nature.
He formed the Woodcraft Indians in 1902 and invited the local youth to join. The stories became a series of articles written for the Ladies Home Journal and were eventually collected in the The Birch Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians in 1906.
He was married twice. The first marriage was to Grace Gallatin in 1896. Their only daughter, Ann, was born in 1904 and died in 1990. Ann, who later changed her first name, became a best-selling author of historical and biographical novels as Anya Seton. According to her introduction to the novel Green Darkness, both of her parents were practicing Theosophists. Ernest and Grace divorced in 1935, and Ernest soon married Julia M. Buttree. Julia would write works by herself and with Ernest. They did not have any children, but did adopt an infant daughter, Beulah (Dee) Seton (later Dee Seton Barber), in 1938. Dee Seton Barber died in 2006.
He was born Ernest Evan Thompson in South Shields, County Durham (now part of South Tyneside, Tyne and Wear), England of Scottish parents and his family emigrated to Canada in 1866. As a youth, he retreated to the woods to draw and study animals as a way of avoiding his abusive father. He won a scholarship in art to the Royal Academy in London, England.
He later rejected his father and changed his name to Ernest Thompson Seton. He believed that Seton had been an important name in his paternal line. He developed a fascination with wolves while working as a naturalist for Manitoba. He became successful as a writer, artist and naturalist, and moved to New York City to further his career. Seton later lived at Wyndygoul, an estate that he built in Cos Cob, a section of Greenwich, Connecticut. After experiencing vandalism by the local youth, Seton invited them to his estate for a weekend where he told stories of the American Indians and of nature.
He formed the Woodcraft Indians in 1902 and invited the local youth to join. The stories became a series of articles written for the Ladies Home Journal and were eventually collected in the The Birch Bark Roll of the Woodcraft Indians in 1906.
He was married twice. The first marriage was to Grace Gallatin in 1896. Their only daughter, Ann, was born in 1904 and died in 1990. Ann, who later changed her first name, became a best-selling author of historical and biographical novels as Anya Seton. According to her introduction to the novel Green Darkness, both of her parents were practicing Theosophists. Ernest and Grace divorced in 1935, and Ernest soon married Julia M. Buttree. Julia would write works by herself and with Ernest. They did not have any children, but did adopt an infant daughter, Beulah (Dee) Seton (later Dee Seton Barber), in 1938. Dee Seton Barber died in 2006.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 160 reviews
December 25, 2024
🦫🦦 If you like wildlife and the wilderness and there is a naturalist’s bent in your body and spirit, this is an astonishingly good book about Seton’s experiences in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His writing always takes me to a better world and then drives me out the door to take that world in for myself. Brilliant writing 🦝🐿️
November 28, 2008
I discovered a battered copy of this book in my school library when I was about 10. I found it very...affecting. The book made me angry and sad, but I would return to it over and over as a sort of cathartic. I was not the sort of kid who cried at books or movies, but this book made me cry. I know it affected my writing for a long time, perhaps to this day.
May 30, 2025
Ernest Thompson Seton (born Ernest Evan Thompson August 14, 1860 – October 23, 1946) was a Canadian and American author, wildlife artist, founder of the Woodcraft Indians in 1902 It was renamed Woodcraft League of America, and one of the founding pioneers of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) in 1910.
Seton was an early pioneer of the modern school of animal fiction writing, his most popular work being Wild Animals I Have Known (1898).
He wrote a number of wild animal stories that were very sentimental and heart rendering tales of the life and death of forest creatures.
He actually faced criticism for giving the animals personalities and "feelings".
My grandmother had a very old copy of the book that has been re published many times.
This publication contains
Lobo, The King Of Currumpaw,
Silverspot, the Story of a Crow,
Raggylug, the Story of a Cottontail Rabbit,
Bingo, the Story of My Dog,
.The Springfield Fox,
The Pacing Mustang,
Wully, the Story of a Yaller Dog,
and Redruff, the Story of the Don Valley Partridge.
I still remember all these stories. As I get older and cry more easily, I can not re read these tales.
Life in the forest is naturally treacherous for wild animals. They do not live a long time.
When night comes in the Wisconsin Northwoods, I have often heard the cries of animals. Predators are always moving at night.
I would not say these stories are appropriate for small children, but life and death are undeniable realities for young readers old enough to accept these facts.
Seton was an early pioneer of the modern school of animal fiction writing, his most popular work being Wild Animals I Have Known (1898).
He wrote a number of wild animal stories that were very sentimental and heart rendering tales of the life and death of forest creatures.
He actually faced criticism for giving the animals personalities and "feelings".
My grandmother had a very old copy of the book that has been re published many times.
This publication contains
Lobo, The King Of Currumpaw,
Silverspot, the Story of a Crow,
Raggylug, the Story of a Cottontail Rabbit,
Bingo, the Story of My Dog,
.The Springfield Fox,
The Pacing Mustang,
Wully, the Story of a Yaller Dog,
and Redruff, the Story of the Don Valley Partridge.
I still remember all these stories. As I get older and cry more easily, I can not re read these tales.
Life in the forest is naturally treacherous for wild animals. They do not live a long time.
When night comes in the Wisconsin Northwoods, I have often heard the cries of animals. Predators are always moving at night.
I would not say these stories are appropriate for small children, but life and death are undeniable realities for young readers old enough to accept these facts.
April 19, 2015
A must-read.
Sir David Attenborough wrote, in his forward for Seton's biography Ernest Thompson Seton: The Life and Legacy of an Artist and Conservationist, "I was given a copy of Wild Animals I Have Known when I was eight. I still have it. It was the most precious book of my childhood. I knew very well that the man who wrote it understood the animals he was writing about with an intimacy, perception, and sympathy that was not equaled by any other author that I had read."
Sir David Attenborough wrote, in his forward for Seton's biography Ernest Thompson Seton: The Life and Legacy of an Artist and Conservationist, "I was given a copy of Wild Animals I Have Known when I was eight. I still have it. It was the most precious book of my childhood. I knew very well that the man who wrote it understood the animals he was writing about with an intimacy, perception, and sympathy that was not equaled by any other author that I had read."
February 19, 2020
ჩემი ბავშვობის საყვარელი წიგნია :) დღემდე მახსოვს მოთხრობა დათვზე.
May 18, 2017
This was a gift from my teachers when I finished elementary school. It's a nice read, full of natural scenes, stories about animals and the relationship of the humans with them. Some of them are sad, some of them touching, but all of them interesting.
April 16, 2019
The final volume of the Nature Library series. This one is about mammals, including watercolors of certain species and descriptions of the various kinds of animals found in North America.
July 5, 2017
I really can't say whether I liked this book or not since there were some stories that I thought were decent while in others the author was quite hypocritical. And yet at the same time he was hypocritical he was showing the views that people, especially outdoorsmen had at that time, around particular types of creatures, especially those of the canine family.
The writing was decent but didn't quite catch the attention so it was a mediocre read. There are definitely no really rough words to understand although there are a few spots where the usage of a dialect accent made it hard to understand what was going on or sometimes where certain terms were used that are job-related.
The illustrations were wonderful and were mostly sketch types with no colors besides the medium to draw them. The details were deep in the pictures although I did find some of the animals in their facing were a bit abnormal but otherwise the illustrations work as a portal to the reader while distracting you a bit from the story as you are reading along.
All in all I am still up in the air due to the misconceptions of the canine family and the deep sadness where each story is truly a tragedy. In the end the book will hopefully bring some readers to respect their fellow animals that share our world and hopefully won't condemn those we do fear as does the author's writing. Now if I can figure out whether I want to keep the book or not is the next step....
The writing was decent but didn't quite catch the attention so it was a mediocre read. There are definitely no really rough words to understand although there are a few spots where the usage of a dialect accent made it hard to understand what was going on or sometimes where certain terms were used that are job-related.
The illustrations were wonderful and were mostly sketch types with no colors besides the medium to draw them. The details were deep in the pictures although I did find some of the animals in their facing were a bit abnormal but otherwise the illustrations work as a portal to the reader while distracting you a bit from the story as you are reading along.
All in all I am still up in the air due to the misconceptions of the canine family and the deep sadness where each story is truly a tragedy. In the end the book will hopefully bring some readers to respect their fellow animals that share our world and hopefully won't condemn those we do fear as does the author's writing. Now if I can figure out whether I want to keep the book or not is the next step....
April 30, 2024
It’s been decades ago that I read this one. But I really enjoyed.
February 22, 2018
I’m finding it incredibly difficult to review this book as it’s so contradictory that I both love it and hate it.
Seton gives a disclaimer in the first few pages when he says: ‘The fact that these stories are true is the reason why all are tragic. The life of a wild animal always has a tragic end’, but this wasn’t enough to prepare me for the harrowing stories that followed.
‘Have the wild things no moral or legal rights? What right has man to inflict such long and fearful agony on a fellow-creature, simply because that creature does not speak his language?’ These closing words by Seton resonated deeply with me, and had they reflected his stance throughout the book I would have commended it highly and recommended it to everyone I knew. This is what I so wanted this book to be: an informed insight into the animal kingdom; a voice at last for the voiceless. Certainly Seton offers a profound understanding and respect for the animals he writes about, making them the heroes and heroines of every tale. The issue is, the atrocities they face, all the suffering, loss and death, come at the hands of the author and his friends.
I find it so difficult to get my head round how Seton can speak so gently about the motherly love of a partridge or the beauty of a rabbit’s tail and then recount how he hacked apart a wolf and used her mutilated body to lure her mate to his death. How he can write so heartlessly about how the torture and enslavement at the hands of his companions led a mother fox to kill her own baby to end his suffering and a mustang to jump off a cliff to end his own.
I’m giving this book 3 stars because I’m glad to have come to know these incredible animals and it gives me some comfort at least to know that their cruel existences weren’t for nothing, but more than anything else this book has left me feeling immensely sad.
Seton gives a disclaimer in the first few pages when he says: ‘The fact that these stories are true is the reason why all are tragic. The life of a wild animal always has a tragic end’, but this wasn’t enough to prepare me for the harrowing stories that followed.
‘Have the wild things no moral or legal rights? What right has man to inflict such long and fearful agony on a fellow-creature, simply because that creature does not speak his language?’ These closing words by Seton resonated deeply with me, and had they reflected his stance throughout the book I would have commended it highly and recommended it to everyone I knew. This is what I so wanted this book to be: an informed insight into the animal kingdom; a voice at last for the voiceless. Certainly Seton offers a profound understanding and respect for the animals he writes about, making them the heroes and heroines of every tale. The issue is, the atrocities they face, all the suffering, loss and death, come at the hands of the author and his friends.
I find it so difficult to get my head round how Seton can speak so gently about the motherly love of a partridge or the beauty of a rabbit’s tail and then recount how he hacked apart a wolf and used her mutilated body to lure her mate to his death. How he can write so heartlessly about how the torture and enslavement at the hands of his companions led a mother fox to kill her own baby to end his suffering and a mustang to jump off a cliff to end his own.
I’m giving this book 3 stars because I’m glad to have come to know these incredible animals and it gives me some comfort at least to know that their cruel existences weren’t for nothing, but more than anything else this book has left me feeling immensely sad.
October 12, 2018
4 stars from me. 5 stars from 11 yo son who couldn't get enough of these well-written stories.
August 19, 2021
მელია დომინო ძაან მიყვარდა🥺
March 20, 2024
AO year 5 pre-read and an unexpected favourite! The stories were so interesting and the writing was just incredible.
July 2, 2024
Seton is a charming storyteller with an impressive eye for detail and a sense of humor. I loved that when he’s recruited to banish animals, he often instead falls in love with them and feigns ineptitude.
“Have the wild things no moral or legal rights? What right has man to inflict such long and fearful agony on a fellow-creature, simply because that creature does not speak his language?”
Amen! (Says this atheist)
“Have the wild things no moral or legal rights? What right has man to inflict such long and fearful agony on a fellow-creature, simply because that creature does not speak his language?”
Amen! (Says this atheist)
April 8, 2024
Read for AO year 5.
"You learn a lot about the animal, grow attached, and then they die." -10 year old's narration.
"You learn a lot about the animal, grow attached, and then they die." -10 year old's narration.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 11, 2020
Seton writes with a great amount of empathy and love for nature that is apparent in all of these stories. Though nearly all of them end in death because as Seton writes “The life of a wild animal always has a tragic end”, he imbibes in each a sense of dignity and great respect, finding beauty in the individual as well as species as a whole, that makes these often cold, casual, and constant deaths meaningful. A bit repetitive with some stories being less compelling than others, but any writer who can make me teary eyed with a story about a partridge in fifty pages deserves a read.
August 31, 2016
I was somewhat disappointed by this book but regardless, it was still a good insight into the natural animal world in parts of Canada 100 years ago. The author had a real talent for observation of the animals he came to 'know' and described what seems like commonplace animal activities, to be activities with real meaning to the creatures and their life. Social order, communication and bonds were seen and recorded.
February 16, 2020
Lovely point of view of a wildlife illustrator that lived his life adjacent to many farmers and trappers, which allowed him to become a keen observer and empath of animal behaviors and emotions; a relatively new concept during his lifetime. I loved this book and am glad to have learned of Ernest Thompson Seton and continue to be impressed by his works and accomplishments.
December 5, 2022
What a great book! Touching and memorable biographies of different wild animals. Poignant and effecting. Man doesn’t come out looking too good in many of these stories. The illustrations complement the stories so well.
May 22, 2023
i know one of the main points of this novel was that every wild animal’s life will end in tragedy but this made reading it kind of depressing. i recognize how revolutionary it would have been at the time it was published though!
December 31, 2023
Mặc dù bản dịch sang tiếng Việt không chính xác và đúng ý nghĩa, nhưng những câu chuyện vẫn rất hay và cảm động. Miêu tả chi tiết với sự quan sát vô cùng tỉ mỉ, cũng như tình yêu thiên nhiên động vật qua từng câu chuyện.
August 23, 2018
What an absolutely delightful book. Our entire family loved this read aloud. Cheeko the squirrel is now a permanent part of our vernacular.
May 13, 2022
Ambleside year 5.
Reading schedule stops before last two chapters are read. I agree wholeheartedly...
Such an exceptionally written book, however the tone does drastically change and the last two chapters feel more like Jack London... and that ain’t a compliment. 🤷♀️
Reading schedule stops before last two chapters are read. I agree wholeheartedly...
Such an exceptionally written book, however the tone does drastically change and the last two chapters feel more like Jack London... and that ain’t a compliment. 🤷♀️
September 7, 2025
a collection of purposeless, false short stories that celebrate human cruelty. it was written in 1899. I was not entertained by this, every story seemed worse than the last and the author seemed to enjoy making up scenarios where animals die excruciating deaths. writing style was enjoyable enough for the era, but that's about all I can say.
May 13, 2022
I was first introduced to this book more than 50 years ago. My parents and my older sister read the stories to me until I was able to read them myself. I especially loved the legends of Lobo, King of the Carrumpaw, and of The Pacing Stallion. When my family acquired a German Shepherd puppy, we named him, "Lobo". About 10 years ago I found a 1926 hard copy of the book that looked like the one I'd loved as a child. I was thrilled to purchase it! I've recently purchased an mp3 of the audio edition, read by Laurelie Westaway, David Thorn, and Bobbie Frohman. I'm looking forward to listening.
February 12, 2014
‘Wild Animals I Have Known’ turned out to be an beautiful book that has been in my possession pretty much all my life, but never read (let’s say 50 or 60 years). It’s a collection of really down to earth animal stories; down to earth because none has a Disney type ending at all but still great stories. As the book was first written over 100 years ago and several stories seem to be set in and around Toronto, then that too was fun to imagine that place and that time. (Toronto – wilderness??)
January 25, 2022
I have started this book cause one of other authors mentioned "Lobo" as a very impactful book for her as a child. Looked through other feedback - people do mention a lot of theses stories as childhood impressions. That got me curios.
As for me the book is ok, not something I could really feel through, unfortunately. Maybe I have grown :) But still quite an interesting read, since there are not to many books that can describe what is happening in wildlife as a personalized story.
As for me the book is ok, not something I could really feel through, unfortunately. Maybe I have grown :) But still quite an interesting read, since there are not to many books that can describe what is happening in wildlife as a personalized story.
March 22, 2015
These are tales of the hard fight for survival of wild animals and are both gritty and heroic in nature. The author clearly loves animals and meticulously details their lives from his acute observations. His illustrations are painstakingly drawn and quite wonderful. I enjoyed the stories very much, however, I remained an outside observer rather than becoming immersed.
December 10, 2019
I found this book quite difficult to enjoy. The language is dated and subject matter is not to my interest. This could be enjoyed by somebody who is really into wild animals and nature. However, due to dated prose, I think there would not be many readers who would find this compelling. I read 4 stories and have to call it quits.
April 9, 2025
I read this aloud to my children as part of Ambleside Year 5 curriculum. It should be noted that most of the stories detail the lives of the animals, so we had to get used to the fact that the animals were going to die at the end of each story. After coming to terms with this, we enjoyed the stories of the various animals and it is one I would reach for again in the future.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 160 reviews