Katherine Shippen collaborated with Anthony Ravielli, the illustrator to give a history of the study of biology for students in the middle school grades. She beautiful tells the story of the progression of scientific discoveries that built upon one another to give us our present day understanding of the created world. First published in 1955, Shippen republished it in 1968 under the title of So Many Marvels. Katherine B. Shippen was born on April 1, 1892, and spent her life as a history teacher, museum curator and children's author. She died on February 20, 1980. During her career as an author, Shippen published 21 books won the Newbery Honor Award twice, one of which was for Men, Microscopes, and Living Things.