Leonard Dubkin

Leonard Dubkin (1905–1972) was an American author and self-taught naturalist from Chicago. He is best known for his books and newspaper columns about wildlife found in urban locations.

Early life Leonard Dubkin was born in 1905 in Odessa, Russia Empire. He came to the United States with his parents in 1907, and the family settled near West Side of Chicago, an area popular for Eastern-European Jewish immigrants.

"She read my article, which was about migratory instinct in birds. “Do you always write about nature?” she asked.

“Yes,” I said, “I’m going to be a naturalist when I grow up.”

“Don’t you think you need a typewriter to be a naturalist?”

“Sure I do. And some day I’m going to be able to afford to buy one.”

She asked me where I lived, and after I told her she walked away. A few days later a man delivered a package to our house, addressed to me. Inside was a brand new typewriter from the kind lady at Hull House. Her name was Jane Addams." - My Secret Places (1972) On a pivotal case in which he was sent to interview a murder suspect, he became distracted by squirrels nesting in the walls of the suspect's home. he took to observing nature closely instead of looking for work. Among the creatures he observed in Chicago were ballooning spiders, bats, crickets, Polyphemus Moths and Cecropia moths.

He eventually found work as an amateur naturalist, writing about his subject in a newspaper column with Lerner Newspapers and in his own books.

He authored six books, now out of print, about the natural history of Chicago, arguing for the preservation of secret places, small parks, and urban wildlife. He wrote a column called "The Birds and Bees" in the Lerner Newspapers, published between 1950 and 1972. During this time there was little to no nature writing taking place in Chicago - conservation efforts focused on larger suburban spaces, such as forest preserves.

He became a champion of everyday wildlife and promoted the idea that wildlife worth observing was not necessarily exotic.

A city park in Chicago is named for him, Dubkin Park, where he often ate lunch while working for the Lerner Newspapers. The park has a community garden, many species of native and non-native plants, and a blank wall along the CTA tracks. Before she died in 2016, his daughter planted a peony in his memory at the park. It is still there.