Willard Price

Willard DeMille Price (28 July 1887 – 14 October 1983) was a Canadian-born American natural historian and author of children's fiction. __NOTOC__ Price was born in Peterborough, Ontario, and his family subsequently moved to the United States when he was four. He acquired his MA and Litt.D from Columbia University, before going on to edit the journals Survey and World Outlook. He travelled on many expeditions for the National Geographic Society and the American Museum of Natural History, in particular to Japan. He documented his travels in a series of non-fiction books and also used them as inspiration for his Adventure series of novels for young readers, which depict the exploits of teenage zoologists Hal and Roger Hunt.

Shortly before his death, in 1983, Price commented that:

My aim in writing the Adventure series for young people was to lead them to read by making reading exciting and full of adventure. At the same time I want to inspire an interest in wild animals and their behavior. Judging from the letters I have received from boys and girls around the world, I believe I have helped open to them the worlds of books and natural history.

Professor Laurie Barber of Waikato University (Hamilton, New Zealand) has presented a case that Willard Price may have been spying for the United States, especially during his Japanese travels in the 1930s. In his biographical book 'My Own Life of Adventure', written shortly before his death he in fact documents how he did spy for the Americans against the Japanese. He was living on a Pacific Island at the time and was able to observe and report Japanese troop movements.

In 2006, the Price family sold the copyrights and related legal rights for the fourteen Adventure series titles, plus the right to use Price's name, to London-based Fleming Literary Management.

Published works

The "Adventure" Series

Adult travel books

References

External links

Category:1887 births Category:1983 deaths Category:Canadian children's writers Category:American children's writers Category:Columbia University alumni