Leonard Dubkin

Leonard Dubkin (1904-1972)^[1] was an American author and naturalist from Chicago.

He is known for his books and newspaper columns on the subject of wildlife found in urban locations.

Early life

Leonard Dubkin took an interest in nature from an early age and frequently contributed to the children’s pages of the Chicago Tribune. This paved his way to a career in journalism.^[2]

Career

Dubkin had difficulty committing to the topics assigned by editors in favour of observing nature. On a pivotal case in which he was sent to interview a murder suspect, he became distracted by squirrels nesting in the walls of the suspect’s home. Upon returning to the office without a scoop, he was fired.

In the following period of unemployment and occasional dispiriting office jobs,^[3] he took to observing nature closely instead of looking for work. Among the creatures he observed in Chicago were ballooning spiders, bats, crickets, Polyphemus Moths and Cecropia moths.^[4]

He eventually found work as an amateur naturalist, writing about his subject in a newspaper column with Lerner Newspapers and in his own books.

He became a champion of everyday wildlife and promoted the idea that wildlife worth observing was not necessarily exotic.^[5][6][7]

A city park in Chicago is named for him.^[8][9]

Bibliography

• The Murmur of Wings (1944)
• Enchanted Streets (1947)
• The White Lady (1952)
• Wolf Point (1953)
• The Natural History of a Yard (1955)
• My Secret Places (1972)

References