Sally Carrighar

Sally Carrighar (1898–1985) was born Dorothy Wagner before adopting her grandmother's name. An American naturalist and writer, she is known for her series of nature books chronicling the lives of wild animals. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, and partially disfigured at birth with nerve damage by the use of high forceps that also broke her mother's coccyx, she had a difficult childhood. During a time of convalescence for heart disease and depression, she "developed a remarkable communication with birds that came to feed at her windowsill and a mouse living in her radio, and in a flash she realized that she could write about birds and animals".