William Maxwell Reed
William Maxwell Reed was a pioneering U.S. author of illustrated science books for children.
After schooling at Harvard, he taught astronomy at Harvard and Princeton University.
Reed later went into the steel industry.
Beginning as a series of letters to his nephew, his first book, The Earth for Sam, was published in 1929. The book remains popular and was republished in 2005.
Earth was followed by a series of popular children's information books, many published by Harcourt, Brace.
Books
- The Earth for Sam; the story of mountains, rivers, dinosaurs and men. Illustrated by biologist/artist James Howard McGregor.
- The Stars for Sam. Illustrated by Karl Moseley.
- And that's why
- The Sea for Sam
- Animals on the March
- America's Treasure
- The Sky is Blue
- Patterns In The Sky: The Story Of The Constellations