Born in Chicago, The United States June 21, 1898 died November 16, 1964 GenreOutdoors & Nature edit data Donald Culross Peattie was a U.S. botanist, naturalist, and author. He was described by Joseph Wood Krutch as "perhaps the most widely read of all contemporary American nature writers" during his heyday. He was nature columnist for The Washington Star from 1924 to 1935. His nature writings are distinguished by a poetic and philosophical cast of mind and are scientifically scrupulous. His best-known works are the two books (out of a planned trilogy) on North American trees which he wrote in the late 1940s and early '50s. These were published as a single volume for the first time in April 2007 as A Natural History of North American Trees. (Unfortunately, this hardbound volume reduces the two books' original 257 mini-essays to only 112 and includes only 135 of Paul Landacre's original 365 woodcut illustrations. Less