Edwin Way Teale

{{short description|American naturalist, photographer & writer (1899-1980)}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = Edwin Way Teale

| image = Edwin Way Teale promo 1976.jpg

| caption = Teale in 1976

| pseudonym =

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1899|6|2}}

| birth_place = Joliet, Illinois, United States

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1980|10|18|1899|6|2}}

| death_place =

| occupation = Naturalist, author, photographer

| period = 1930–1980

| genre = Natural history

| subject = Nature

| spouse = {{marriage|Nellie Donovan|1923}}

| children = 1

| movement =

| signature =

| website =

}}

Edwin Way Teale (June 2, 1899 - October 18, 1980) was an American naturalist, photographer and writer. Teale's works serve as primary source material documenting environmental conditions across North America from 1930–1980. He is perhaps best known for his series The American Seasons, four books documenting over {{convert|75000|mi|km}} of automobile travel across North America following the changing seasons.

Early years and education

Born Edwin Alfred Teale in Joliet, Illinois, to Oliver Cromwell Teale and Clara Louise (Way) Teale, his interest in the natural world was fostered by childhood summers spent at his grandparents' "Lone Oak" farm in Indiana's dune country—experiences recalled in his book Dune Boy (1943).Joan Gibb Engel,[http://chicagowildernessmag.org/issues/summer2001/duneboy.html "Dune Boy: Edwin Way Teale, best-selling author of nature books, had roots in the sandy soil of northwest Indiana"], Chicago Wilderness Magazine, Summer 2001, accessed 3/2/2008. At the age of nine, Teale declared himself a naturalist and at 12 changed his name to Edwin Way Teale.Edward H. Dodd Jr., Of Nature, Time and Teale: a biographical sketch of Edwin Way Teale, 1960, Dodd, Mead, & Company, New York{{rp|p8-9}}

He received a B.A. from Earlham College in English literature in 1922, then took a job at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas. Teale taught at Friends from 1922–1924 and served as men's and women's debate coach, yearbook adviser and chairman of the campus Peace Contest.Friends University, "The 1924 Talisman Yearbook", Wichita, Kansas, 1924 In 1923 he married Nellie Imogene Donovan, also on the Friends faculty, whom he had met while at Earlham College.{{rp|p9}}

In 1924, Edwin and Nellie moved to New York City so Edwin could pursue his education at Columbia University. Teale chose Columbia in part

... because it was in New York and it wouldn't take two months to get a manuscript back from a magazine.{{rp|p10}}

In 1926 he received his Master of Arts degree from Columbia University.

Career

File:Trail Wood home and lane.jpg

File:Trail Wood writing cabin.jpg

In New York, Teale spent 13 years in his first full-time writing job, as a staff writer for Popular Science, working on a wide variety of assignments.{{rp|p11}}

In 1937, Teale's first photographic nature study, Grassroots Jungle, was published from among 200 of Teale's insect photographs, many of which were taken on a {{convert|4|acre|ha|adj=on}} plot of land near his home on Park Avenue in Baldwin, Long Island{{rp|p12-17,50}} This was followed, in 1941, by The Golden Throng, a combination of text and photographs on bees.

At the age of 42, Teale left Popular Science to become a freelance photographer and nature writer.{{rp|p15}}

In 1942 he wrote Byways to Adventure: A Guide to Nature Hobbies as well as Near Horizons, which received the 1943 John Burroughs Medal for distinguished natural history writing.John Burroughs Association, [http://research.amnh.org/burroughs/medal_award_list.html, John Burroughs Medal Award List], accessed 3/2/2008

In March 1945 Edwin's son David was killed in action in Germany.{{rp|p19}} The Teales began a series of trips across the country, in part to deal with their grief. That same year, Lost Woods was published and received positive reviews.{{cite news|author=Frederic Babcock|work=Chicago Daily Tribune|title=Lost Woods review|date=Nov 25, 1945|page=D11}}

On February 14, 1947, the Teales set off in their black Buick for a {{convert|17000|mi|km|adj=on}} roadtrip. They headed first to the Florida Everglades, then zigzagged northward following the advance of spring. Teale wrote about the adventure in North with the Spring. The book was followed by three others on the North American seasons: Journey Into Summer, Autumn Across America, and Wandering Through Winter, which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1966.The Pulitzer Board, [http://www.pulitzer.org The Pulitzer Prize Winners 1966], accessed 3/2/2008

Teale served as president of the New York Entomological Society[http://www.nyentsoc.org/ Official Website] from 1944–1949 and the Brooklyn Entomological Society (later incorporated into the New York Entomological Society[http://www.nyentsoc.org/nyes1page.htm Official Website of the New York Entomological Society] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100125025331/http://www.nyentsoc.org/nyes1page.htm |date=2010-01-25 }}) from 1949–1953.

Teale worked as a co-writer for a segment titled "Vernal Equinox" on the March 20, 1955 episode of Omnibus, a TV-Radio Workshop of the Ford Foundation produced by Robert Saudek and hosted by Alistair Cooke on the CBS Television Network.United States Library of Congress Online Catalog, [https://www.loc.gov, Author Search for Edwin Way Teale], accessed 3/2/2008

Teale became president of the Thoreau Society in 1958, the same year that Autumn Across America was presented to the White House Library. He received an Indiana Author's Day award in 1960 and the Doctor of Humane Letters (LHD) honorary degree from Indiana University in 1970.Indiana University, Office of University Ceremonies, [http://www.indiana.edu/~ceremony/honors/honorarydegrees.shtml IU Honorary Degree Recipients], accessed 3/2/2008 Earlham College honored Teale with an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree.{{rp|p51}}

In 1959, the Teales left the increasing suburbanization of their Long Island home for a {{convert|130|acre|ha|adj=on}} farm in Hampton, Connecticut, which they named "Trail Wood", and which Teale chronicled in A Naturalist Buys an Old Farm (1974). The property was further described in A Walk through the Year (1978). Situated next to the Natchaug State Forest, Trail Wood is now managed as a nature preserve by the Connecticut Audubon Society.Connecticut Audubon Society, [http://www.ctaudubon.org/visit/trailwood.htm Center At Trail Wood] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080313155122/http://www.ctaudubon.org/visit/trailwood.htm |date=2008-03-13 }}, accessed 3/2/2008

In 1975, Teale received the Ecology Award from the Massachusetts Horticultural SocietyThe Concord Free Public Library [http://www.concordlibrary.org/scollect/Fin_Aids/TEALE.htm Special Collections] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070828234427/http://www.concordlibrary.org/scollect/Fin_Aids/TEALE.htm |date=2007-08-28 }}, Concord, Massachusetts. 1999, accessed 3/3/2008 and the Conservation Medal from the [http://www.newfs.org/ New England Wildflower Society].New England Wildflower Society, [http://www.newfs.org/about/awards/award-winners.html Award Winners 1964-Present] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080514132251/http://www.newfs.org/about/awards/award-winners.html |date=2008-05-14 }}, accessed 3/3/2008

Teale was an elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the New York Academy of Sciences, and an associate of the Royal Photographic Society.

Death

In 1980 while working with author Ann Zwinger on the book A Conscious Stillness: Two Naturalists on Thoreau's Rivers, Teale died. Teale's portion of the book was nearly complete at the time of his death, and he was included as co-author when the book was published in 1982.Ann Zwinger and Edwin Way Teale. A Conscious Stillness: Two Naturalists on Thoreau's Rivers, 1982, Harper & Row, jacket text.

Nellie Teal died in July, 1993 at the age of 92.[https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE7DB153CF932A15754C0A965958260 Obituary] The New York Times, accessed 3/2/2008

Recognition

In 2009, the Indiana Historical Bureau installed a historic marker in Porter County, Indiana, near Teale's grandparents’ farm where he spent summers. Teale wrote that his interest in nature was inspired during his stays at the farm.[https://www.in.gov/history/state-historical-markers/find-a-marker/edwin-way-teale/, Edwin Way Teale Historic Marker], accessed 3/24/2024

Bibliography

The Book of Gliders (1930)
Grassroot Jungles (1937)
The Boys' Book of Insects (1939)
The Boys' Book of Photography (1939)
The Golden Throng (1940)
Byways to Adventure: A Guide to Nature Hobbies (1942)
Near Horizons (1942)
Dune Boy: The Early Years of a Naturalist (1943)
The Lost Woods (1945)
Walden – Introduction, commentary, photographs (1946)
Days without Time (1948)
The Insect World of J. Henri Fabre (1949){{cite book | last1=Fabre | first1=Jean-Henri | last2=Teale | author-link1=Jean-Henri Fabre|first2=Edwin Way | url=https://archive.org/details/insectworldofjhe0000fabr/page/n6/mode/1up |title=The insect world of J. Henri Fabre / In the translation of Alexander Teixeira de Mattos | publisher=Dodd, Mead & Co. | publication-place=New York | year=1949 | lccn=49005858 | oclc=1149435162 | ol=6046959M | access-date=January 25, 2024 | via=Internet Archive }}
Green Mansions – Introduction, captions (1949)
North With The Spring: A Naturalist's Record of a 17,000 Mile Journey with the North American Spring (1951)
Green Treasury (1952)
Circle of the Seasons (1953)
The Junior Book of Insects (1953)
Exploring The Insect World With Edwin Way Teale (1953)
The Wilderness World of John Muir (1954)
Omnibus III vol. 23 / TV-Radio Workshop of the Ford Foundation /CBS Television Network (1955)
Insect Friends (1955)
Autumn Across America: A Naturalist's Record of a 20,000 Mile Journey through the North American Autumn (1956)
Adventures In Nature (1959)
Journey Into Summer: A Naturalist's Record of a 19,000 Mile Journey Through the North American Summer (1960)
The Lost Dog, (1961)
The Bees adapted from material by Edwin Way Teale (1961)
The Strange Lives of Familiar Insects (1962)
The Thoughts of Thoreau (1962)
Audubon's Wildlife: With Selections from the Writings of John James Audubon Editor (1964)
Wandering Through Winter: A Naturalist's Record of a 20,000 Mile Journey Through the North American Winter (1965)
Springtime in Britain: An 11,000 Mile Journey Through the Natural History of Britain from Land's End to John O'Groats (1970)
Photographs of American Nature (1972)
A Naturalist Buys An Old Farm (1974)
The American Seasons (1976)
A Walk through the Year (1978)
A Conscious Stillness: Two Naturalists on Thoreau's Rivers (1982, published posthumously)

Books About Edwin Way Teale

Of Nature Time And Teale: A Biographical Sketch of Edwin Way Teale by Edward H. Dodd Jr., Dodd, Mead, & Company, New York, 1960.

References

External links

{{Find a Grave|7320359}}
[http://naturewriting.com/edwinway.htm Naturewriting.com: Edwin Way Teale]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20070219064137/http://www.lib.uconn.edu/about/exhibits/carroll/ewteale/teale.html Teale's biography from the University of Connecticut]
[https://archive.today/20140828224410/http://137.99.31.136:8080/xtf/view?docId=finding_aids/MSS19810009.xml&doc.view=print;chunk.id= Biography from University of Connecticut]
[http://www.in.gov/history/markers/EdwinWTeale.htm Edwin Way Teale Historic Marker at Indiana Historical Bureau website]
[http://www.wnyc.org/story/edwin-teale-sigmund-spaeth-and-agnes-de-mille/ Edwin Way Teale speaking before The New York Herald Tribune Book and Author Luncheon January 20, 1952 about his book North With the Spring as broadcast by WNYC Radio.]
[https://www.in.gov/history/files/Edwin_Way_Teale_Research_Summary_6-2-2008.pdf Edwin Way Teale Research Summary]