Robert McClung was born in the small city of Butler, Pennsylvania. He was the second child in his family of 3 boys and 1 girl. As a child he loved being outdoors and would explore the countryside around his home for hours at a time. He collected and brought home frogs, toads, garter snakes, rabbits, chipmunks, turtles, wasp and bird nests, and many other things. (Does this sound familiar to anyone else out there!?)
McClung remembered a time in third grade when he found a cocoon and took it to school. Luckily, his teacher appreciated curiosity in a child and allowed him to keep it in the classroom. She later showed him how to mount and preserve insects which led him to a lifelong hobby of insect collecting.
It was also around this time when McClung began writing stories - "mostly wild and woolly epics of adventure," he said in an autobiography.
McClung went on to Princeton after high school where he studied zoology, history, and literature. He found it difficult to decide what to do with his life because there were so many things he was interested in. He considered being a doctor, teacher, advertising agent, writer, and working at a zoo. But World War II came along and instead McClung spent five years in the Navy. Later he earned a master's degree in natural history and science from Cornell and spend time working at the Bronx Zoo in New York, where he ended up as curator of mammals and birds.
It wasn't until after McClung got married that he began writing books about animals for young people. His aim was "to show how different kinds of animals live, by relating the story of one individual animal in each book." That is what makes Robert McClung's books stand out in our home library. We didn't just read about animals, but we read about one specific animal and how it lived. Many of his books follow an animal through their whole life cycle.
These are especially good books for young readers. The print in many of his books is very large and easy on small eyes. Almost every page has an illustration, most by McClung himself.
Wings in the Woods was McClung's first book and describes many of his childhood activities and interests.
List of titles by Robert M. McClung:
Most of these are available used here.
Please email me if you know of other titles by Robert McClung or if you can complete some of the titles above. Thanks!
This page copyright 2004, Ann Tatum