Born in Tarrytown, New York, Rockwell Kent studied architecture at Columbia University and art at the New York School of Art. He studied under William Merritt Chase and Robert Henri and began exhibiting his landscapes in New York in 1908. In 1918 he spent a winter in Alaska with his son and wrote and illustrated an adventure memoir, in the tradition of Thoreau and Emerson, titled Wilderness. This lead to other book projects including his famous 1926 book cover for Moby Dick.