C. L. Marlatt

Born in Atchison, Kansas, in 1863, Charles Lester Marlatt studied at Kansas State Agricultural College, earning bachelor's and master's degrees before beginning his career in entomology. He later joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he worked for decades in the Bureau of Entomology and became known for combining scientific research with public service.

His work ranged widely. He studied economically important insects, wrote practical guides on pests such as bedbugs and clothes moths, and played an important role in early biological control efforts and plant quarantine policy in the United States. He is also remembered for documenting the emergence patterns of periodical cicadas, work that helped make a complex natural phenomenon understandable to a broad audience.

For readers today, Marlatt stands out as a writer who brought scientific knowledge down to earth. Even when his subject was highly technical, he wrote with a plain, useful style aimed at helping ordinary people understand the insect world around them.