Dragon Hunter: Roy Chapman Andrews and the Central Asiatic Expeditions

Rating:
Summary: Fine Biography of Explorer and Scientist Roy Chapman Andrews
Review: Although Charles Gallenkamp's writing doesn't attain the literary heights of a Ron Chernow or David McCullough, he does succeed in "Dragon Hunter", his biography of the legendary Roy Chapman Andrews, with a vivid recounting the explorer-scientist's life and career, focusing on the American Museum of Natural History's Mongolian expeditions of the 1920's, organized and led by Andrews. It is a compelling biography of how Andrews, then a recent college graduate, talked his way into employment at the American Museum of Natural History, organized and led the Mongolian expeditions starting fifteen years later, and finally, assumed directorship of the museum. Along the way we are treated with interesting vignettes on Anderews' political problems with Mongolian and Chinese officials while both countries were being torn apart by revolution and banditry. Those expecting ample details on the scientific research conducted by Andrews and his team and their implications should look elsewhere, most notably Michael Novacek's and Mark Norrell's (Dean of Science and respectively, chairman of the Division of Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History) "Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs". Instead, Gallenkamp focuses on the human aspects of these expeditions, without devoting much time to the science. Judging from Gallenkamp's account of Roy Chapman Andrews' life, I am not surprised that Andrews is considered as a possible role model for the fictitious Indiana Jones.

Rating:
Summary: A Real Indiana Jones
Review: Before the Jurassic Park boom, little boys all had an enthusiasm for dinosaurs, and much of that enthusiasm was fueled by an explorer who only now has his first full biography, _Dragon Hunter: Roy Chapman Andrews and the Central Asiatic Expeditions_ (Viking) by Charles Gallenkamp. It is a great monument to a forgotten explorer and collector.

Andrews began an autobiographical volume with a foreword that included the words, "I was born to be an explorer. There was never any decision to make. I couldn't do anything else and be happy." He had humble beginnings in Benoit, Wisconsin, but dreamed of exploring for the American Museum of Natural History in New York. He literally told the director there that if it were just a matter of mopping the museum floors, that was what he wanted to do. And he did it, eventually becoming the director of the museum. From floors he went to taxidermy, and then to field expeditions about whales, and then to his five huge famous expeditions into Mongolia from 1922 to 1930. Andrews had superb skills at planning and organizing his expeditions, but was he was a brilliant salesman, enlisting the financial aid of members of New York society. The descriptions of his expeditions make exciting reading, as sandstorms, snowstorms, and brigands all battered the cars, camels, and explorers. But he brought back dinosaur eggs, which caused a sensation, _Velociraptor_, and much more.

_Dragon Hunter_ is a well researched and at times exciting telling of the adventures of an American original. Gallenkamp has usefully summarized the Mongolian regional politics as well as New York society of the time, and has made it clear just how the publicity-happy Andrews became a sensation in his day. His record had been sadly neglected by the museum, which is now making amends. The book ends with an epilogue to show how the finds that Andrews fought to get back to the museum have proved a foundation of much of modern paleontology. We have explorers of other types now, but we will not see explorations of this grandeur, size, and style again.

Rating:
Summary: A Marvelous Book about a Genuine Explorer-Adventurer
Review: Charles Gallenkamp's Dragon Hunter presents itself as a marvelous book from a number of perspectives. Roy Chapman Andrews was the real thing-a genuine explorer-adventurer who expanded the horizons of science and captured the public imagination. His complexity can be found in his ability to live in a palace in Beijing surrounded by servants, gourmet food, and polo ponies, and then wander off into the Gobi for five months (carrying of course a gourmet cook, white tablecloths, and enough rifles to fend off bandits).

I love the American Museum of Natural History, and I grew up on stories of Chapman's great expeditions, the discovery of dinosaur eggs, and a host of other romantic-scientific tales (Beebe in the South Pacific looking for birds, Akeley in Africa, the list goes on). This book covers an amazing range of realities.

Gallenkamp addresses an array of subjects, including the intricacies of Chinese and Mongolian politics in the 1920s and 1930s, the consequences of the breakdown of society in the form of rising banditry and rising corruption, the emerging anti-western sentiment as scientists became robbers of the nation's heritage, the drama of scientific research, the evolving history of evolution, and the intricacies of running a museum. He also accurately depicts the nature of celebrity status in a peacetime western world seeking glamour through adventure (this being the age of Byrd flying to the North Pole, Lindberg flying the Atlantic, etc).

This book interestingly notes how science evolves and one generation's knowledge becomes another generation's discarded inaccuracies. Andrews went to central Asia searching for the origins of man. We now know those origins lie in Africa. Andrews found a carnivorous dinosaur lying on some eggs that they thought belonged to a horned dinosaur and assumed it was eating them (thus, the dinosaur's name became "egg thief that loves ceratopsians"). Now we know that those eggs actually belonged to the Ovirapter and were being mothered, not eaten. Many of Andrews' best discoveries are still on exhibit at the Museum in New York and well worth seeing.

Today, as Michael Novacek notes in his foreword, Mongolia and China are again open to exploration, and science is moving on. The American Museum has annual expeditions into the Gobi and cooperates widely with Chinese and Mongolian scientists. Ultimately, Gallenkamp's Dragon Hunter takes a major step in the restoration of Andrews' reputation as a serious contributor to modern science.

Rating:
Summary: many errors in there
Review: Gallenkamp did a good job in bibliographic research, but please be careful when you read this book. Don't believe everything therein is true. I have noticed that there is a tremendous amount of inaccurate information included in text especially in accounts of Andrews' whaling trip to Japan (I am a native Japanese, so I know more about Japanese geography than him!) although most of the errors do not affect significantly the whole story of Andrews' life with a full of adventure.

Rating:
Summary: A DIFFICULT BOOK FOR ME TO REVIEW
Review: I must start by admitting that as a young boy, many a many a year ago, that I thrilled to Andrews' first hand accounts of his adventures. They were the sort of stuff a small boy in the midwest dreamed of. That being said, and having to admit that I am no longer that little boy (well, not much anyway), I had very mixed emotions about this book. I was a bit disappointed in the scholarship shown at times. Some of the writing was a bit flat, and viewing Andrews through the eyes of what I know now and did not know then, Andrews' image has been sort of tarnished for me.
I think you have to read this book with a good grounding and knowledge of the attitudes of most Americans/WASPS at that time, just as you have to view the Civil War and Pre Civil War through the attitudes of that time. No, it was not right, much of what we did was wrong and down right disgusting and it was not "correct" by todays standards, but it was what it was. History is history and I do not feel the author was condoning any of the questionable actions that Andrews made. Read this book for the fun of it and then read some of Andrews' actually writings and compair. Read it as an adventure story. Yes, their are better works out there on this subject, that is a fact, but this one is simply more "fun" than most of them. Recommend.

Rating:
Summary: A neglected explorer gets recognition
Review: Roy Chapman Andrews in the 1950s was one of my boyhood heros. I avidly read his books about exploration in the Gobi and China. But Andrews faded away into obscurity over the years. This book revives his memory.

For a reader unfamiliar with Andrews this book might be rated outstanding. For me, familiar with the outlines of his life, it was only good, not imparting enough new information. For example, a fascinating fact about Andrews is the animosity his colleagues at the American Museum of Natural History had for him. The best example of this animosity is that when Andrews died in 1960, the Museum did not even acknowledge the death of its most famous employee and former Director in any Museum publication. This snub to Andrews is somewhat akin to the TV networks failing to report the death of Walter Cronkite, when and if he passes into the hereafter. Why such hatred and spite toward Andrews, a personable, outgoing, charismatic leader? Who were those in the Museum who held a grudge against him and why? The author doesn't cover this topic adequately, leaving unanswered questions in my mind.

Thus, while this book is well worth reading, there remain facets of Andrew's life still closed and mysterious. But this book does a fine job of reviving recognition of Andrews who was famous in his day. He deserves the acclaim.

Rating:
Summary: Roy Chapman Andrews= Indiana Jones
Review: Roy Chapman Andrews lead a very exciting and interesting life, one that seems to have been the basis for the Indiana Jones films.
Andrews starts off from a kid in a poor family and rises to fame through his adventures. When he was in his teens, he talked (How many can do that?) his way into a job at the National Museum of Natural History as an assistient. While he was there, he was sent around to study various things, becoming the expert on whales, dinosaurs and the middle east.
He then began planning an enormous expidition to the Gobi Desert in China, to find evidence of the first man. He didn't fidn any, but he did find the first Velociraptor, the Flaming Cliffs of Mongolia and countless fossils of dinosuars and other exctinct animals. Along the way, they had to confront bandits, corrupt Governmental officials and a civil war.
Gallenkamp does a nice job writing this biography. It is fast paced and fairly detailed. He draws from several sources and puts them together to get this man's life in order. Along with that, you really get to see Andrews as a person, and you can see that he has a vibrent personallity. He is like a real Indiana Jones in many ways.
Along with the biography, Gallenkamp includes pictures, so we get to see what Andrews looks like, but he doesn't name the native guides at all.
The problem with it is that is too fast paces, and it jumps around a little bit, making it confusing for the reader. While this is not a huge problem, it is annoying and could be written better.
Overall, for its few shortcomings, this is a very good read and well worth getting.

Rating:
Summary: Old and outworn
Review: Roy Chapman was a product of his times. He could appear at home in a Mongolian dust storm and an Upper East Side pallor. The book balances the many facets of his life, giving equal time to the travel, science, and personnel accomplishments of Roy Chapman. There is no doubt that he was a product of his times, backed by the rich, he traveled to the developing world, excavated thousands of relics and dinosaur bones and took them out of the country for display in a New York museum. In today's political landscape this could no longer occur, but to lessen his accomplishments by applying today's standards to his time period is revisionist history of the worst guide. The author does a solid job defending Roy Chapman from these illogical attacks. Roy Chapman's rise from small town high school graduate to global explorer and director of a major museum is the basis of the American spirit

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent True Life Adventure for the Dinosaur Lover
Review: This book is a biographical account of the remarkable career of Roy Chapman Andrews. Andrews was among the most celebrated and colorful explorers of the 20th century, responsible for mounting several major expeditions to penetrate the mysterious (to the West) depths of the Gobi Desert. These expeditions resulted in some of the most important paleontological discoveries in history.

"Dragon Hunter" is best characterized as a true life adventure story. It focuses on Andrews himself and his flair for solving the unsolvable. With his vivid imagination, Andrews conceived of an audacious plan to explore one of the harshest environments on earth --- in automobiles (keep in mind, this is in the 1920s). With his uncanny flair for spreading enthusiasm like a contagion, he was able to raise money for the expedition from some of the great tycoons of the era in amounts deemed impossible by his contemporaries. With his intense energy and bravado, he was able to overcome seemingly insurmountable logistical problems; rampant banditry, political chaos, warring factions, severe weather, bad communications, political corruption, death threats, you name it.

This makes for a fascinating read, all set in the exotic and dangerous China of the last emperor, a romantic and intriguing world we may never see again.

I should warn you, however, not to expect too much on the science of the expeditions, as I did. While there is some information on the scientific significance of the finds, the book really focuses on the story of "how" they were found and what implications they had for the success of the expeditions over some 8 to 10 years. To understand the paleontology of the Gobi, you will need to look to other sources. ("Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs" by Michael J. Novacek might be a good place to start.)

This is hardly a criticism though. The book purports to be a biography, and that's what it is. If you enjoy a mix of history and adventure, this book is worth your time.

Rating:
Summary: An Excellent True Life Adventure for the Dinosaur Lover
Review: This book is a biographical account of the remarkable career of Roy Chapman Andrews. Andrews was among the most celebrated and colorful explorers of the 20th century, responsible for mounting several major expeditions to penetrate the mysterious (to the West) depths of the Gobi Desert. These expeditions resulted in some of the most important paleontological discoveries in history.

"Dragon Hunter" is best characterized as a true life adventure story. It focuses on Andrews himself and his flair for solving the unsolvable. With his vivid imagination, Andrews conceived of an audacious plan to explore one of the harshest environments on earth --- in automobiles (keep in mind, this is in the 1920s). With his uncanny flair for spreading enthusiasm like a contagion, he was able to raise money for the expedition from some of the great tycoons of the era in amounts deemed impossible by his contemporaries. With his intense energy and bravado, he was able to overcome seemingly insurmountable logistical problems; rampant banditry, political chaos, warring factions, severe weather, bad communications, political corruption, death threats, you name it.

This makes for a fascinating read, all set in the exotic and dangerous China of the last emperor, a romantic and intriguing world we may never see again.

I should warn you, however, not to expect too much on the science of the expeditions, as I did. While there is some information on the scientific significance of the finds, the book really focuses on the story of "how" they were found and what implications they had for the success of the expeditions over some 8 to 10 years. To understand the paleontology of the Gobi, you will need to look to other sources. ("Dinosaurs of the Flaming Cliffs" by Michael J. Novacek might be a good place to start.)

This is hardly a criticism though. The book purports to be a biography, and that's what it is. If you enjoy a mix of history and adventure, this book is worth your time.