Description
Book SynopsisBarnum Brown led a remarkable life (1873-1963), spending most of it searching for fossils - and sometimes oil - in every corner of the globe. This biography discloses the details about his life and travels - from his youth on the western frontier to his spying for the US government under cover of his expeditions.
Trade Review"A rollicking recollection of Brown." -- Jen Barone Discover Magazine "It is about time someone wrote this book ... this book tells the story very well ... Highly recommended." -- M. A. Wilson Choice "Dingus and Norell do justice to the unconventional, many-faceted if somewhat mysterious Brown." Publishers Weekly "An authoritative biography of Barnum Brown has long been wanting, and the authors of the new volume have done an overall excellent job of summarizing the achievements of one of the most famous fossil hunters of all time." -- Brian Switek Smithsonian.com/Dinosaur Tracking Blog "The definitive account of the life and times of a singular man and a superlative fossil hunter." The Birdbooker Report "The definitive account of the life and times of a singular man and a superlative fossil hunter." Science Blogs "Well written." -- Donald M. Henderson Great Plains Research "Intriguing." College & Research Libraries News "Brown liked bonhomie, incurred woman trouble from time to time, and had a wife whose embellishments of life in the field enliven the biography ...her letter writing and published books about subsequent digs round out this biography and indicate the public interest in "Mr. Bones" during his lifetime. Dingus and Norell ably revive that in this gap-filling scientific biography." -- Gilbert Taylor Booklist "Comprehensive and enjoyable ... A monumental amount of careful research, consultation with colleagues and source checking clearly went into this volume and it will stand forever as the definitive work on this most important character." -- Darren Naish Historical Biology "Occasionally, a biography strikes the perfect note ... The exhaustive research pays off big for the reader, placing Barnum Brown in the upper ranks of well-written biographies." -- Claire Rudy Foster Foreword "An extremely good book." -- Jeffrey W. Martz Journal Vertebrate Paleontology "A scholarly but very readable book. Brown emerges as a character one might enjoy sitting beside on a long airplane flight." -- Jane Manaster Sacramento & San Francisco Book Revs
Table of ContentsContents List of Illustrations Prologue: The Mindset of Barnum Brown 1. Child of the Frontier (1873--1889) 2. Student ... of Sorts (1889--1896) 3. Apprentice Extraordinaire (1896--1898) 4. To Land's End: Patagonia (1898--1900) 5. To the Depths of Hell Creek (1900--1903) 6. Love (1903--1906) 7. Loss (1906--1910) 8. The Canadian Dinosaur Bone Rush (1910--1916) 9. Cuba, Abyssinia, and Other Intrigues (1916--1921) 10. Jewels from the Orient: Raj India (1921--1923) 11. Perils and Pearls Up the Irrawaddy: Burma (1923) 12. Samos: Isle of Intrigue (1923--1925) 13. Ancient Americans Hunting Bison? Birds as Dinosaurs? (1925--1931) 14. Digging--and Flying--for Dinosaurs: Howe Quarry and the Aerial Survey of Western Fossil Beds (1931--1935) 15. Toward the Golden Years: The Mystery Track-Maker and the Glen Rose Trackway (1935--1942) 16. Brown as a Spy, Movie Consultant, and Showman at the World's Fair (1942--1963) Epilogue Appendix 1. List of Major Specimens Collected by Barnum Brown on Display in the AMNH Fossil Halls Appendix 2. Memoirs of Barnum Brown: Discovery, Excavation and Preparation of the Type Specimen Tyrannosaurus rex Appendix 3. Summary of Fossil Collections by Barnum Brown and His AMNH Crews Notes Bibliography Acknowledgments Index
