On August 2, 1900, Holling Clancy Holling was born in Jackson County, Michigan. Holling grew up to hold many different positions, all dealing with his love of art and nature. He worked at the Field Museum of National History in Chicago, IL in the taxidermy department. It was here he met his wife, Lucille Webster. He went on to work as an art instructor on the first ever University World Cruise. Lucille helped her husband with many of the illustrations for his children’s books.
Tree in the Trail is about a cottonwood tree which becomes a landmark on the Great Plains and then is carved into a yoke and travels the Santa Fe Trail. Holling traveled the Santa Fe Trail on horseback as a young man and drew from his experiences when he wrote this book.
Paddle-to-the-Sea is about a figure carved by an Indian boy that travels from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean. This book won the Lewis Carroll Shelf Award in 1962.
Minn On the Mississippi tells the tale of a turtle hatched in the headwaters of the Mississippi River and his travels to the Gulf of Mexico. Holling’s Seabird tells the story of a carved ivory gull that is take along with four generations of seafarers on a whaler, clipper ship, steamer, and an airplane.
He died on September 7, 1973.