Gallant, Roy (1924 - )

Genre: Children's Literature, Non-Fiction

Roy Gallant was born in Portland, Maine, where he attended Deering High School. After navigating B-24s in World War II, he attended Bowdoin College, majoring in English, minoring in philosophy and science, and receiving a B.A. in 1948. He attended Columbia University, studying journalism and earning an M.S. (1949).

Gallant, called "one of the deans of American science writers for children" by School Library Journal has had many jobs that involve both writing and science from staff writer for Science Illustrated and Boys' Life in the late 1940's to directing the Southworth Planetarium in Portland.

In the early 1970s, Gallant returned to Maine to live in a large house on a lake near Rangeley. He has taught at the University of Southern Maine and in the natural sciences division at the Maine College of Art. He has written a number of articles about his travels in 1992 to Siberia, where he became the first American ever to visit the Tunguska site of the 1908 meteorite catastrophe; he's also visited the Sikhote-Alin, Chinge, and Pallas meteorite sites there. Besides his books, he contributes articles to magazines and encyclopedias.

Selected Bibliography

  • Exploring the Moon, 1955 ill. Lowell Hess)
  • Exploring Mars (1956 ill. Lowell Hess)
  • Exploring the Universe (1956 ill. Lowell Hess; won Thomas Alva Edison Foundation Award for best children's science book of the year)
  • Exploring the Weather (1957 ill. Lowell Hess)
  • Exploring Chemistry (1958; ill. Lee Ames)
  • Exploring the Planets (1958 ill. John Polgreen)
  • Exploring the Sun (1958; ill. Lee J. Ames)
  • Man's Reach into Space (1959; ill. Lee J. Adams)
  • Exploring under the Earth: The Story of Geology and Geophysics (1960; ill. John Polgreen)
  • The ABC's of Astronomy: An Illustrated Dictionary (1962; ill. John Polgreen)
  • Antarctica (1962)
  • The ABC's of Chemistry: An Illustrated Dictionary (1963)
  • Weather (1966)
  • Discovering Rocks and Minerals; A Nature and Science Guide to Their Collection and Identification (1967; with Christopher J. Schuberth)
  • How Life Began: Creation Versus Evolution (1975)
  • Memory: How it Works and How to Improve It (1980/1985)
  • Lost Cities (1985; First Books)
  • Rainbows, Mirages, and Sundogs: The Sky as a Source of Wonder (1987)
  • Before the Sun Dies: The Story of Evolution (1989)
  • Earth: The Making of a Planet (1997/1998; with Christopher J. Schuberth)
  • Geysers: When Earth Roars (1997; First Books Earth & Sky Science)
  • Early Humans (1999/2000; The Story of Science series)
  • Earth's History (Earth Science Series, 2002)
  • Water: Our Precious Resource (2003)

Selected Resources