Customer Reviews

Dinosaurs, Mammoths and Cavemen: The Art of Charles R. Knight

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A wonderful book. Covers in beautiful detail the age of dinosaurs, prehistoric mammals and early man. Heavily illustrated with incredible plates. The original paintings of many of these images are in the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Field Museum in Chicago, the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D. C., the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County in L.A. and many other museums around the world. They are reproduced brilliantly. It is a significant work covering these topics in terms that non-palentologists and dinosaur, prehistoric mammal and early man fans can appreciate. It is a book I am proud to own. It was available in both soft and hardcover. The softcover tends to come apart at the binding, so great care is needed in handling. The hardcover has no such problems. If you can find it, buy it!

Anyone who has ever picked up an illustrated text dealing with dinosaurs is probably already familiar with Knight's work. He is the father of modern paleo-biological illustration.
Some of his images may be somewhat dated or anthropomorphic, arguably, but he is to this day a respected science illustrator. Stephen Jay Gould employed Knight's illustration of Cambrian marine fauna for the cover of his, at one time, definite work on the epoch "Wonderful Life."

Dinosaurs, Mammoths & Cavemen is the perfect cursory overview of Knight's career illustrating megafauna of the past and gives a decent and economical account of the man himself. But it's far from a biography and appropriately dedicates pages and pages solely to the presentation off Knight's illustrations. His images are lively, vivid and detailed. This book is a prized piece of my personal library both as a recreational distraction and as reference.