Robert L. Ripley is a name synonymous with the strange, the fantastic and the bizarre. It is a name that is familiar the world over, having been printed since 1918 in more than 300 newspapers and translated into 17 different languages. It is a name that is associated with outlandish claims and fantastic truths. Little did Ripley realize, when he sold his first cartoon in 1908 to Life magazine, that he had opened the floodgates of fame that would make his name one of the world's most recognizable.

Ripley was born on Christmas Day, 1893, in Santa Rosa, Calif., to parents who were by no means well-to-do. From an early age, he was very interested in drawing. But it was not until he turned 14 and sold his first cartoon for $8 that the young boy realized drawing would be his life's work. He even began applying his talent to his daily life, convincing his school teachers that he could better express himself through drawing than through writing essays.

Ripley's other passion was baseball. The grand, glorious pastime beckoned the young hopeful, and he eventually earned some local notoriety as a pitcher. But his dreams of fame on the diamond were cut short by an elbow injury.

At age 15, just one year after selling his first cartoon, young Ripley landed a job as a sports cartoonist-thus combining his two favorite passions-for the San Francisco Chronicle, but his tenure there was short-lived after he asked for a raise.

In 1913, with no job and little money, Ripley trekked across the country to the beckoning metropolis of New York, soon obtaining a position at the New York Globe, at the then astronomical salary of $100 a week. Ripley's move to New York and comfortable finances opened up a whole new world to him, and in 1914 he traveled abroad for the first time. On the itinerary were London, Paris and Rome, each of which boasted some of the world's greatest museums. And Ripley made sure he saw as many of them as time would allow.