Synopses & Reviews
Wallace explores in exciting detail the rivalry between the paleontologists Edward Drinker Cope and Onthniel Charles Marsh--19th-century America's major scientific feud. Cope and Marsh independently discovered hundreds of dinosaur fossils on the high plains when the Indian wars were in full swing.
'"A crisp, well-informed, and fair-minded retelling of the Cope-Marsh 'bone war.'"'
Like Matthiessen, McPhee, and Gould, [Wallace] asks large questions but knows the answers we find will always be too small.”
The Chicago Sun-Times
When dinosaur fossils were first discovered in the Wild West, they sparked one of the greatest scientific battles in American history. Over the past century it has been known by many names -- the Bone War, the Fossil Feud -- but the tragic story of the competition for fame and natural treasure between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh, two leading paleontologists of the Gilded Age, remains prophetic of the conquest of the West as well as a watershed event in science.
With a historian's eye and a novelist's skill, David Rains Wallace charts in fascinating detail the unrestrained rivalry between Cope and Marsh and their obsession to become the first to make available to the world the abundant, unknown fossils of the western badlands. This story will surely fascinate anyone who has had to confront the myriad facets of professional jealousy, its sterile brooding, and how it leads to an emotional abyss.
About the Author
David Rains Wallace is the author of fifteen books, including The Turquoise Dragon, The Quetzal and the Macaw, The Monkey's Bridge (a 1997 New York Times Notable Book), and The Klamath Knot,which won the Burroughs Medal in 1984. He was raised in Connecticut and graduated from Wesleyan College. He now lives in Berkeley, California.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments vii Illustrations xiii Prologue: Assassination by Newspaper 1 1. Prodigy and Heir 11 2. Stepchild and Laggard 23 3. Fair Prospects in Dirt 32 4. Professor Marshs Traveling Bone and Pony Show 46 5. The Lone Philadelphian 67 6. Babel at Fort Bridger 77 7. Marsh the Reformer 92 8. Cope the Explorer 112 9. Huxley Anoints Marsh 131 10. Dinosaurs and Fate 143 11. An Inside Job 167 12. The Slippery Slope 178 13. Behind the Arras 192 14. Cope Strikes 209 15. The Herald Steams Ahead 226 16. Marsh Strikes Back 238 17. The Herald Steams Away 247 18. Symmetries and Ironies 255 19. Death 269 20. The Skeleton Drummer 287 Epilogue: Squabblers on a Raft 298 Notes 310 Bibliography 340 Index 348