author
Donald Culross Peattie
1898–1964
A gifted American botanist and naturalist, he brought trees, wild places, and everyday landscapes to life for generations of readers. His books blend careful observation with a warm, vivid style that helped make nature writing widely popular in the twentieth century.
1 Audiobook
Trees You Want to Know
by Donald Culross Peattie
About the author
Born in Chicago in 1898, Donald Culross Peattie became one of America’s best-known nature writers as well as a trained botanist. He studied at the University of Chicago, worked with the United States National Museum and later the Department of Agriculture, and built a career writing about plants, landscapes, and the natural world for a broad audience.
Peattie wrote many books, but he is especially remembered for his richly readable works on trees and American nature, including A Natural History of Trees of Eastern and Central North America and A Natural History of Western Trees. During his lifetime, other writers praised how widely he was read, and his work stood out for making botany feel alive, human, and full of story.
He was married to writer Louise Redfield Peattie, and the two also collaborated on children’s books. Peattie died in 1964, but his nature writing continues to be reissued and rediscovered by readers who enjoy science, landscape, and graceful prose in equal measure.