It’s the birthday of Scott O’Dell (1898-1989), who won the Newbery Medal, the Hans Christian Andersen Award, and a list of other children’s book awards as long as your arm—just big buttery handfuls of children’s book awards—and who is best known for his novel Island of the Blue Dolphins (1960).

O’Dell was born Odell Gabriel Scott in Los Angeles; a typesetter got his name wrong on one of his first writings, and O’Dell liked it and legally changed his name. He grew up in several locations around Los Angeles, living at one point in an island house built on stilts. He recalled that his high school teachers in Long Beach thought he was the brightest kid in the world, and he did too until he went away to college and discovered that not only was he not the brightest, he hadn’t the faintest idea how to study. He went to four different colleges but (I believe) graduated from none.

O’Dell trained as an officer for WWI but gosh darn if the war didn’t end before he could be commissioned. During WWII, he served at Sheppard Air Force Base in Texas and then with the Coast Guard Auxiliary, even though he was over 40 and not draftable. Back up to the 1920s: O’Dell took a job reading amateur movie scripts and eventually worked in movies in various capacities (set dresser, cameraman). He had one onscreen appearance in the silent film Son of the Sheik: evidently heartthrob Rudolph Valentino had fat, short little fingers, so they used a closeup of O’Dell’s more seemly hand holding a string of pearls.

O’Dell went to Italy to work on the filming of Ben Hur and loved Italy so much he stayed on for a year, writing his first (never published) novel. He began writing novels and articles for adults, but his first children’s book, Island of the Blue Dolphins, became a bestseller, won him his first Newbery, and changed his career. He went on to write 25 more books for children, including The King’s Fifth (1966, Newbery Honor), The Black Pearl (1967, Newbery Honor), and Sing Down the Moon (1970, Newbery Honor). In 1972, winning the Hans Christian Andersen Award made him Officially Great and Important.

O’Dell and his second wife, Elizabeth Hall, spent the last 14 or so years of his life living on a lake surrounded by woods in New York State. Upon his death and cremation, O’Dell’s ashes were scattered over the Pacific Ocean near La Jolla, California, after which a pod of dolphins spontaneously appeared and playfully accompanied the boat of mourners until it reached San Diego Bay. And that’s a damn beautiful way to be eulogized.

Of writing for children, O’Dell said, “Writing stories you hope children will read is more rewarding than writing for adults. Adults are not good correspondents. But if children like your books, they respond with thousands of letters.”

Enjoy every surprise bursting forth from nature this fine Thursday and stay scrupulously honest to the data.