From his stunning discovery of Tyrannosaurus rex one hundred years ago to the dozens of other important new dinosaur species he found, Barnum Brown led a remarkable life (1873-1963), spending most of it searching for fossils--and sometimes oil--in every corner of the globe. One of the most famous scientists in the world during the middle of the twentieth century, Brown--who lived fast, dressed to the nines, gambled, drank, smoked, and was known as a ladies' man--became as legendary as the dinosaurs he uncovered. Barnum Brown brushes off the loose sediment to reveal the man behind the legend. Drawing on Brown's field correspondence and unpublished notes, and on the writings of his daughter and his two wives, it discloses for the first time details about his life and travels--from his youth on the western frontier to his spying for the U.S. government under cover of his expeditions. This absorbing biography also takes full measure of Brown's extensive scientific accomplishments, making it the definitive account of the life and times of a singular man and a superlative fossil hunter.
Barnum Brown: The Man Who Discovered Tyrannosaurus rex
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From Publishers Weekly
American Museum of Natural History paleontologists Dingus and Norell recount the life of the legendary paleontologist who discovered the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex in Montana. The authors meticulously annotate many of the hundreds of finds Barnum Brown made over his lifetime. These descriptions take on a repetitive quality, but the other aspects of the business of fossil hunting will better hold the nonspecialist's attention. Brown's interactions with local cultures as he travels from the U.S. to India, Burma, Greece, Canada, and various countries within Africa on his expeditions, his relationships with other paleontologists, and the well-integrated story of his extracurricular life, which included a stint as a spy for the OSS, all contribute to a well documented whole. Brown's story is also the story of paleontology in the first half of the 20th century, and the authors capture the excitement of the ever-expanding knowledge as it is communicated among the field's leaders, as well as the controversies that inevitably followed. Dingus and Norell do justice to the unconventional, many-faceted if somewhat mysterious Brown, aptly named after showman P.T. Barnum and to his private and public personae. 44 b&w photos; 9 maps. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
The greatest dinosaur fossil collector ever—that's who Barnum Brown (1873–1963) was, according to authors Dingus and Norell, staff paleontologists at the American Museum of Natural History. Towering over visitors there is evidence of the claim: more than 50 of Brown's antediluvian specimens bestride its exhibit halls, and the authors think it's about time readers were introduced to Brown. Stretching from the 1890s to the 1940s and spanning the globe, Brown's expeditions are reconstructed by the authors from museum archives. The coverage of fund-raising efforts and outfitting lends an institutional tone to the narrative, but Brown's colorful adventures rescue it. Brown liked bonhomie, incurred woman trouble from time to time, and had a wife whose embellishments of life in the field enliven the biography. Named Lillian, she wasn't there for Brown's career-making discovery of T. rex in 1902, but 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
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is an extremely well done biography of the most prolific dinosaur discoverer of all time. It is well researched by the members of the Museum of Natural History who have access to original written materials & field notes of an extraordinary life spanning his whole career! This book will exhaust you just reading all this man accomplished and found, plus gathering military intelligence & world-wide geology. Great read.
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Forever in the shadow of the t-Rex one of the greatest paleontologist a finally get his story told and it blew me away. Such a character
4.0 out of 5 stars
Hunting for the Man Only a Little Less Hard than Hunting for Fossils
February 12, 2011
Format:Hardcover
Barnum Brown exhaustively covers the peregrinations of the man Dingus and Norell call the world's greatest dinosaur hunter, but in the end, as they say in the book's very last sentence, his was "an enigmatic private life, and we have just begun brushing the loose sediment off the surface to reveal what lies buried beneath." But doing more than what they have done may prove very difficult -- there are no family survivors and Brown did not seek publicity for himself, although he certainly did for his work. (For example, at one point in the 1930s he was working with the American Museum of Natural History's PR department to get live radio coverage for one of his expeditions to the American West.) He also wrote very little in the field or even later. Maybe he planned to regurgitate everything in the autobiography he intended to write, but never got around to even as he lived and stayed amazingly active until he died a week before his 90th birthday. According to the authors, he was planning in his late 80s to have himself lowered down a cliff face to explore for fossils if airplane surveys had revealed likely sites.
This is a very good read, but while the book presents more than most readers will want to know about where Brown explored, the man himself eludes.
This is a very good read, but while the book presents more than most readers will want to know about where Brown explored, the man himself eludes.
