Robert L. Ripley (1890–1949), an American cartoonist, explorer, reporter, adventurer, and collector, who traveled to 201 countries in 35 years seeking the odd, the unusual, and the unexplained.
After his father’s early death, he dropped out of high school to help support his family. A potential career as a baseball player ended because of an arm injury he sustained while trying out for the major leagues, and so he turned to his other main talent, drawing cartoons. Beginning at age 16, he held jobs as a sports cartoonist with several San Francisco newspapers, and he moved to New York City in 1913. There he drew cartoons for the New York Globe, and he originated his first “Believe It or Not!” cartoon for that paper’s issue of December 19, 1918; this cartoon portrayed nine oddities from the world of athletics.
Robert Ripley received an average of 3,000 letters a day for over 20 years. That’s over a million letters a year!
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