The writer made his first popular appeal in "Wild Animals I Have Known," which ran through ten editions in one year and has now an established place in animal literature. Mr. Seton is a man of many sides and sympathies. Probably no one person has had a more profound influence on the boys of America than he, for he has taught the philosophy of out-door life and has been a pioneer in such work. Someone has used the term, "Nature Apostle," to express the motive of his activity. He has made the things of the out-of-doors attractively real to the man in the street, as well as to the child. Mr. Seton likes the woods. He likes to make things, to teach and demonstrate Woodcraft with groups of boys. He comes to town when he must, but he is happiest at "Dewinton," near Greenwich, Connecticut, where he and his wife have developed an estate comprising buildings, gardens, woods, a lake and bridges of rare interest and charm. All is unique. Mr. Seton planned the buildings, wrote the specifications and superintended the building.
Much that Seton has written has exploited the Indian--the ideal Indian--as the first American, presenting him in the most attractive fashion, and setting before the youth of the land the skill of the Indian in handicrafts and woodcraftsmanship. He has not only popularized things that have to do with the open air in America: he was the first man anywhere to organize in practical manner a definite form of out-door activity for boys. This he did in 1902 when he founded the Woodcraft Indians. The principles of self-government with adult guidance, of competition against time and space, were first laid down by him in those days. Later he became Chief Scout of the Boy Scouts of America. In 1916 he organized the Woodcraft League of America, to carry out the general ideals of his early work: "Something to know, something to do, something to enjoy in the woods and always with an eye to character." Chief of the Woodcraft League, he says, "Woodcraft is lifecraft." This organization admits boys and girls, men and women, and aims to carry over into old age the real play spirit on the playgrounds of Mother Nature. As a boy he hungered for Nature knowledge, but he had no books to guide him, and he declared that if ever he had the opportunity he would give to children what he did not have. In the preface of his "Two Little Savages," he says, "Because I have known the torment of thirst I would dig a well where others may drink."