He gained considerable fame as an illustrator for nature books written by prominent authors, such as Sally Carrighar, David McCord, Wyman Richardson, and John J. Rowlands (who was one of his close friends). Kane contributed about eighty photographs to Thoreau's Walden—A Photographic Register published by A. A. Knopf in 1946. He illustrated five volumes of excerpts, edited by Dudley C. Lunt, from Thoreau's journals; the excerpts were originally published in the 1950s by W. W. Norton & Company.
