Most editorial page cartoonists focus on the tough job of meeting daily deadlines, satisfied that their message will influence public opinion through their drawings. Jay Norwood "Ding" Darling, however, drew Pulitzer prize-winning cartoons, but was also immersed in conservation action, emerging as one of the great innovators in the conservation movement of the first half of the twentieth century.

Norwood, Michigan, was Darling's namesake birthplace, but he grew up in Elkhart, Indiana, and attended high school in Sioux City, Iowa, at a time when the area was relatively undeveloped. Wandering the prairies of nineteenth century Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota instilled in him a life-long love of the outdoors and wildlife.

After an uneven beginning, Darling graduated from Beloit College in Wisconsin with a degree in biology. (At one college...