- Herbert Zim
Herbert Spencer Zim (
July 12 ,1909 –December 5 ,1994 ) was a naturalist, author, editor and educator best known as the founder (1945) andeditor in chief of theGolden Guide s series of nature books.Biography
Zim was born 1909 in
New York City , but spent his childhood years in southernCalifornia . At the age of fourteen he returned to the east, and took his degrees (B.S., M.S., Ph. D.) atColumbia University . Zim wrote or edited more than one hundred scientific books, and in a thirty-year career teaching in thepublic schools , introduced laboratory instruction into elementary school science. He is best known as the founder, in 1945 (and for twenty-five years, editor in chief) of theGolden Guide s, pocket-size introductions for children to such subjects asfossils ,zoology ,microscopy , rocks andminerals ,codes and secret writings,trees ,wildflowers ,dinosaur s,navigation and more. He was the sole or co-author for many of the books, which were valued for their clarity, accuracy and attractive presentation—helped by the illustrations of his friend,Raymond Perlman .He moved to
Florida with his wife, the anthropologist Sonia (Sonnie) Bleeker, and continued to work on the Golden Guides series untilAlzheimer's disease forced him to slow down in the 1990s. He died in 1994 atPlantation Key , survived by his second wife, Grace Shows, and two sons.ee also
*The Legend of
Wan Hu
*Golden Field Guide External links
* [http://www.lib.usm.edu/~degrum/html/research/findaids/DG1086f.html?DG1086b.html~mainFrame The Herbert S. Zim papers at the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection, The University of Southern Mississippi]
* [http://nwda-db.wsulibs.wsu.edu/findaid/ark:/80444/xv50293 Guide to the Herbert Zim papers at the University of Oregon.]
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