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          +----------------------------------------------------+
          |               BY JOHN COLEMAN ADAMS                |
          |                                                    |
          |                                                    |
          |            NATURE STUDIES IN BERKSHIRE             |
          |                                                    |
          |_Photogravure Edition_, with 16 illustrations       |
          |          in photogravure. 8º                $4.50  |
          |                                                    |
          | Popular Edition, illustrated                 2.50  |
          |                                                    |
          |                                                    |
          |              WILLIAM HAMILTON GIBSON               |
          |            ARTIST--NATURALIST--AUTHOR              |
          | 8º. Fully illustrated. (By mail $2.15) net, $2.00  |
          |                                                    |
          |                G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS                 |
          |                NEW YORK AND LONDON                 |
          +----------------------------------------------------+

                     [Illustration: _Frontispiece_

                          W. Hamilton Gibson]

           [Illustration: _William Hamilton Gibson, Age 41_

 (_The autograph was always written without lifting the pen, beginning
    with the last half of the “H” and ending with the first half_)]




                        William Hamilton Gibson
                      Artist--Naturalist--Author

                                  By
                          John Coleman Adams
             Author of “Nature Studies in Berkshire,” etc.

                              Illustrated

                            [Illustration]

                          G. P. Putnam’s Sons
                          New York and London
                        The Knickerbocker Press
                                 1901


                            COPYRIGHT, 1901
                                  BY
                          G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS

                   The Knickerbocker Press, New York




                               Dedicated
                                  to
                           Emma L. B. Gibson
                                  and
                               Her Sons




THE MOTIVE


Three men have done more than any others to inspire our generation with
the love of nature. They are Henry D. Thoreau, John Burroughs, and
William Hamilton Gibson. Thoreau, when the generation was young,
challenged it to come out of doors, live in a shanty, and see as much of
the world as he saw. John Burroughs, in later years, has acted as guide
to a multitude of minds, eager to be “personally conducted” to field and
forest. William Hamilton Gibson, besides winning many feet into those
“highways and byways” whose charms he taught us to feel, was fortunate
in his exceptional power to bring nature to the very eyes of men in the
works of his pencil, with which he made luminous--literally
“illustrated”--his pages. This alone would be a justification of some
account of his life and work.

But in addition to this claim on the interest of the public, those who
knew him are aware of others;--a personality of singular charm and
forcefulness; a career quite marvelous in its swift and sure
achievements; a genius as rare as it was versatile; a devotion to art
and to study which fairly wore him out in its exactions on his energy;
an ideal which instructs while it shames our sordidness and
materialism. His personality will surely grow upon the American people
as time gives a true perspective to his life and work. Already we can
see something of his conspicuousness and his right to a place in the
foremost group of our nature-prophets. In that great trio, Thoreau is
the philosopher, Burroughs the poet and man of letters, Gibson the
artist-naturalist. In these days when so many are entering into the
inheritance which Gibson helped to secure, it is fitting that
nature-lovers should hear the story of his fruitful life.




CONTENTS


CHAPTER                                                             PAGE

   I. A FORTUNATE BOYHOOD                                              1

  II. CALLING AND ELECTION                                            24

 III. A QUICK SUCCESS                                                 49

  IV. WITH PENCIL AND BRUSH                                           81

   V. THE OPEN EYE                                                   108

  VI. THE ACCIDENT OF AUTHORSHIP                                     139

 VII. THE WORKMAN AND HIS WORK                                       166

VIII. THE PERSONAL SIDE                                              200

  IX. AFTERGLOW                                                      237




LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


   WILLIAM HAMILTON GIBSON                                 _Frontispiece_
             Age, 41

      TO FACE PAGE

   THE GUNNERY                                                         6
             Washington, Connecticut

   WILLIAM HAMILTON GIBSON                                            18
             Age, 13

   WILLIAM HAMILTON GIBSON                                            28
             Age, 17

[A]THE ROAD TO HIDE-AND-SEEK TOWN                                     36
             First Composition, 1873

   WILLIAM HAMILTON GIBSON                                            42
             Age, 23

[A]“THE PEACOCK’S FEATHER” (“THE PEERLESS
     PLUME”)                                                          48
             (“Highways and Byways”)
             Copyright, 1882, by Harper Brothers

[A]GOD’S MIRACLE                                                      58
             By permission of The Curtis Publishing Company

   THE SUMACS                                                         80

[A]PEN-AND-INK SKETCH                                                 82
             From a Letter

   AT THE EASEL                                                       90
             Brooklyn Studio

[A]THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE                                              98
             First Watercolor

[A]“CYPRIPEDIUM ACAULE”                                              108
             (“My Studio Neighbors”)
             Copyright, 1897, by Harper Brothers

[A]UPLAND MEADOWS                                                    120
             From a Painting

[A]“THE BOBOLINK AT HOME”                                            130
             (“Strolls by Starlight”)
             Copyright, 189