Edwin Way Teale:
(June 2, 1899 – October 18, 1980).
American naturalist, photographer and writer. Teale’s works serve as primary source material documenting environmental conditions across North America from 1930–1980. He is perhaps best known for his series The American Seasons, four books documenting over 75,000 miles (121,000 km) of automobile travel across North America following the changing seasons.
The world’s favorite season is the spring. All things seem possible in May.
1. “The world’s favorite season is spring” — Teale presents spring as universally beloved. After the chill and closedness of winter, nature opens up again: blossom, light, growth. That sense of rebirth touches something deep within people.
2. “Everything seems possible in May” — May is the height of spring: full of promise, not yet finished blooming. The word ‘seems’ is significant — it is not about certainty, but about the ‘feeling’ of endless possibilities that nature evokes in its most beautiful month. It is an invitation to hope and optimism. The quote fits perfectly with Teale’s broader philosophy: he described spring as something you can never fully grasp — you touch it here and there, you know it only in parts and fragments — and it is precisely that which makes it so enchanting. Author: The quote is by Edwin Way Teale and dates from 1951. It appeared in his book “North With the Spring”. Edwin Way Teale was an American naturalist, photographer, and Pulitzer Prize-winning writer. He lived from 1899 to 1980 and dedicated his life to describing American nature and the seasons. “North With the Spring” was the first part of a famous four-part series about the American seasons, in which he traveled 17,000 miles across North America with his wife to follow spring from Georgia to Canada.
How sad would be November if we had no knowledge of the spring!
For humans, autumn is a time to harvest and gather. For nature, it is a time to sow and scatter.
