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Paul Goble Collection - Read Full Bio

Paul Goble has felt the pull of the American Indian Tradition “as long as I can remember,” he says, “probably since the time my mother read me stories by Grey Owl and Ernest Thompson Seten.” As he grew up, Paul Goble read everything he could lay his hands on concerning Native Americans, until he came upon the books enshrining the wisdom of Black Elk, which finally “clinched” for him his life’s orientation.

Born, September 27, 1933 in Haslemere, England, he grew up in Oxford where his father was a harpsichord maker, and his mother a professional musician. After two years in the army, Goble studied furniture design at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, where he graduated with honors in 1959.

In the same year he was enabled to make his first visit to the United States, which he was followed by a number of summers spent on the reservations. At each successive contact with Indian people his insight into ideas and ways deepened; one of his rewards was adoption by Lakota and Yakima people. “From early childhood I always wanted to know more, and to see the country and wildlife with which the lives and beliefs of Indian people were so closely interwoven.”

Goble came to live in the Black Hills of South Dakota in 1977, where, except for brief periods, he and his wife, Janet, have lived ever since. Soon after moving to the US his book, The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses, won the Caldecott Medal as the year’s best illustrated book for children. In more then thirty books, Goble has drawn primarily upon traditional stories of the Lakota, Cheyenne and Blackfoot peoples. “ I feel that I have simply seen and learned many wonderful things from Indian people, which most people never have the opportunity to experience. I have simply wanted to express and to share these things which I love so much. To learn something of another culture has given me more facets and perspectives for my own life.”

Paul Goble has given his original paintings to the South Dakota Art Museum. Janet and Paul currently reside in Rapid City, SD.