Overview

Winner of the 2002 Spur Award for Best Western Nonfiction - Contemporary Less than one hundred years ago, Diplodocus carnegii-named after industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie-was the most famous dinosaur on the planet. The most complete fossil skeleton unearthed to date, and one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered, Diplodocus was displayed in a dozen museums around the world and viewed by millions of people. Bone Wars explains how a fossil unearthed in the badlands of Wyoming in 1899 helped give birth to the public's fascination with prehistoric beasts. Rea also traces the evolution of scientific thought regarding dinosaurs, and reveals the double-crosses and behind-the-scenes deals that marked the early years of bone hunting. With the help of letters found in scattered archives, Tom Rea recreates a remarkable story of hubris, hope, and turn-of-the-century science. He focuses on the roles of five men: Wyoming fossil hunter Bill Reed; paleontologists Jacob Wortman-in charge of the expedition that discovered Mr. Carnegie's dinosaur-and John Bell Hatcher; William Holland, imperious director of the recently founded Carnegie Museum; and Carnegie himself, smitten with the colossal animals after reading a newspaper story in the New York Journal and Advertiser. What emerges is the picture of an era reminiscent of today: technology advancing by leaps and bounds; the press happy to sensationalize anything that turned up; huge amounts of capital ending up in the hands of a small number of people; and some devoted individuals placing honest research above personal gain.

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9780822958468

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Reviews

An account of the intrigue, manipulation, rivalry, and skullduggery by which Andrew Carnegie obtained a world-class dinosaur skeleton for his newly founded museum in Pittsburgh.... A good read. - Bloomsbury Review; [A tale] of hubris and humanity, power and pride.... Reads like a novel. - Billings Gazette; A little known story about Diplodocus carnegil, the fossil... destined to be the most famous dinosaur of all time. - Deseret News; Rea's book is charming, and especially good in telling the story of the minutiae of the field work. - TLS; Includes not only the highly competitive world of the still-new science of paleontology in Wyoming and around the world, but Wyoming history and politics, Western railroading, Carnegie and his part in the steel business, the growth of Carnegie's adopted home city of Pittsburgh, and Antarctic exploration. It's an unlikely mixture that Rea pulls off well. - Jackson Hole News; Carnegie's agent, a man named Holland, found himself drawn into a tumultuous race for the biggest and best skeleton yet. Very few tactics were considered too heinous to be employed by someone. As the museums and universities lured away and recruited one another's scientists and fossil prospectors, Holland explored loopholes in the land-claim laws that might allow him to take possession of land on which discoveries had already been made. Others, in the fields, smashed and destroyed dinosaur bones so that no one else would find them intact. Rea pieces together countless bits of information to construct an overall picture of this period of scientific discovery. - Booklist

An account of the intrigue, manipulation, rivalry, and skullduggery by which Andrew Carnegie obtained a world-class dinosaur skeleton for his newly founded museum in Pittsburgh.... A good read. -Bloomsbury Review [A tale] of hubris and humanity, power and pride.... Reads like a novel. -Billings Gazette A little known story about Diplodocus carnegil, the fossil... destined to be the most famous dinosaur of all time. - Deseret News Rea's book is charming, and especially good in telling the story of the minutiae of the field work. -TLS Includes not only the highly competitive world of the still-new science of paleontology in Wyoming and around the world, but Wyoming history and politics, Western railroading, Carnegie and his part in the steel business, the growth of Carnegie's adopted home city of Pittsburgh, and Antarctic exploration. It's an unlikely mixture that Rea pulls off well. -Jackson Hole News Carnegie's agent, a man named Holland, found himself drawn into a tumultuous race for the biggest and best skeleton yet. Very few tactics were considered too heinous to be employed by someone. As the museums and universities lured away and recruited one another's scientists and fossil prospectors, Holland explored loopholes in the land-claim laws that might allow him to take possession of land on which discoveries had already been made. Others, in the fields, smashed and destroyed dinosaur bones so that no one else would find them intact. Rea pieces together countless bits of information to construct an overall picture of this period of scientific discovery. -Booklist

Author Information

Tom Rea, who grew up in Pittsburgh admiring the dinosaurs at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, lives in Casper, Wyoming, with his family. Now a freelance writer, for a dozen years he covered politics, education, and science for the Casper Star-T

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