Dorothy Hinshaw Patent - 1940
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I. Biography Dorothy Hinshaw Patent is one of many Montana authors. She was, however, not born and raised there. She enjoys writing and living in Montana, where she can be near
nature and write about it all at once. She writes mostly children's books but sends a powerful message and has a lot to offer readers of all ages.
Hinshaw Patent received a bachelor's degree in Biological Sciences from Stanford University and a M.A. and Ph.D. in Zoology from the University of California, Berkeley. In
graduate school, she married a fellow student, her current husband, Greg Patent. Hinshaw Patent and her husband Greg moved to Montana where he got a job teaching at
the University of Montana. There, they raised their two sons, David and Jason, who are now grown and married. Now, both being writers, Dorothy and her husband could live
anywhere. They choose to stay and live in Montana, because they love the peace and quiet and have made many friends. Dorothy Hinshaw Patent was born in Rochester, Minnesota, on April 30th
, 1940. She lived there until she was nine years old. She then moved to San Francisco, California, lived there for two years, and moved to Belvedere, California, where she lived until she went to
Stanford University in 1958. She has also lived in Friday Harbor, Washington; Detroit, Michigan; Naples, Italy; and Greenville, North Carolina, where she started writing. Finally,
she moved to her current home of Missoula, Montana, in 1972, where she got her first publishing contract and truly began her writing career.
Hinshaw Patent immensely enjoys writing. Her favorite part about it is the research. She has always loved to learn about new and interesting things. She also enjoys the challenge
of writing, organizing material so it makes sense to the reader. When writing her usual nonfiction books, the actual writing part is fairly easy for her, but in some cases proves to be a great challenge as well.
Dorothy Hinshaw Patent is very inspired as a writer. She normally writes books dealing with nature. She loves nature and wants to share her love and knowledge of it with her
readers. She likes the idea of opening children's minds to the natural world, allowing them to recognize the variety of ways living things interact with each other on earth. She also
has enjoyed helping communicate the amazing diversity of human potential in other cultures. Hinshaw Patent writes to connect with her readers. She wishes to send a message of
interconnectedness of all life on earth. She believes that we all depend on other life to sustain our own lives. Hinshaw Patent wants to clearly send this message. She thinks the
connection is not obvious to kids today, having so much technology in their everyday lives on which to depend. Being a writer, Dorothy Hinshaw Patent, it might seem, would enjoy reading herself.
Indeed she does. She reads a variety of books. She especially enjoys works of Robertson Davies and Margaret Atwood, but reads many adult fiction and nonfiction books.
Hinshaw Patent has had other jobs in the past. Besides writing, she had part-time jobs doing laboratory research and university teaching. She much prefers writing to these other
jobs. Not only does she greatly enjoy writing, but she can set her own schedule as opposed to following one somebody else may have given her.
Dorothy Hinshaw Patent is a very successful Montana author. She has published over 100 books and has published in magazines and newspapers as well. She provides
entertainment and new ideas for readers. She is very educated and has experienced a lot in her life so far. She enjoys living surrounded by the peace and diversity of nature and will
continue to write about it, for it is what she loves. II. List of Works Shaping the Earth III. Patent on the Web
West by Covered Wagons
A Family Goes Hunting
Lost City of Pompeii
Prairies
Yellowstone Fires: Flames and Rebirth
Children Save the Rainforest
Biodiversity
Back to the Wild
Deer and Elk
Looking at Bears
Gray Wolf, Red Wolf
Prairie Dogs
Killer Whales
Horses: Understanding Animals
What Good is a Tail?
Wild Turkeys
Eagles of America
Looking at Penguins
The book of Garden Secrets
A is for Apple
Nutrition
The Vanishing Feasts
This essay was submitted by a student of Steve Gardiner, a teacher at Billings Senior High School in Billings, Montana.