In addition to writing many non-fiction and fiction books about the outdoors, he was a staff writer and editorialist for The New York Times.
When Hal was 10, the family moved 30 miles south of Brush, Colorado, where his father staked out a homesteader's claim on the prairie.
It was during this time he realized his true calling was as an author, and he soon moved to New York where he studied journalism and graduated from Columbia University in 1923 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in literature.
While attending Columbia University he wrote for the Brooklyn Times, the United Press, and King Features Service.
In 1952, Borland and wife Barbara moved to a 100-acre farm in Connecticut, where they lived and worked until his death in 1978 at the age of 77 from emphysema.