The Great Plains © Author Adventures

Paul Goble, Chronicler of Native Americans in South Dakota

Paul Goble (1933-2017) was born and educated in England but made South Dakota his home in 1977. He had a great love for the Native American tribes of the Plains and wrote and illustrated many children’s books about Native American folk stories and traditions. In 1979, he won the Caldecott Award for his book, The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses.

Read more about him here: https://www.sdstate.edu/south-dakota-art-museum.

To see a list of his books and reviews, click here: https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/authorpage/paul-goble.html.

“We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills and the winding streams with tangled growth, as ‘wild.’ Only to the white man was nature a ‘wilderness’ and only to him was the land ‘infested’ with ‘wild’ animals and ‘savage’ people. To us it was home. Earth was beautiful and we were surrounded with the blessings of the Great Mystery.” — Dream Wolf, Paul Goble

The South Dakota Art Museum

The South Dakota Art Museum is located at 1036 Medary Avenue on the campus of the South Dakota State University in Brookings in eastern South Dakota. (Parking is available at 926 Harvey Dunn.) It is the home of the entire collection of Goble’s art work, which he donated directly to the museum. Visiting the museum is the best way to view and comprehend the work of this sensitive writer and artist who lived in his adopted state of South Dakota for around forty years.

Brookings has a population of approximately 25,000, which is roughly 10,000 more residents than when Paul Goble arrived there. Around half of them are students at South Dakota State University.

On the Path

The South Dakota Art Museum is the second stop on our South Dakota Author Adventures Trail.

Also See

This literary location is slightly beyond the western border of Minnesota so can also be added as a stop on the Minnesota Author Adventures Trail.

Rebecca Blake Beech