The Life of a Fossil Hunter (1909);

"I saw the wagon slowly begin to tip, pulling the ponies over sideways, and then the whole outfit, wagon and horses, began to roll down the slope. Whenever the wheels stuck up in the air, the ponies drew in their feet to their bellies, and at the next turn, stretched out their legs for another roll."

Fossil hunter Charles Hazelius Sternberg (1850 – 1943), was recently made famous as a main character in Michael Crichton's best-selling historical novel "Dragon Teeth." Sternberg was an American fossil collector, paleontologist, and participant in The Bone Wars, also known as the "Great Dinosaur Rush", a period of intense fossil speculation and discovery during the Gilded Age of American history, marked by a heated rivalry between Edward Drinker Cope (of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia) and Othniel Charles Marsh (of the Peabody Museum of Natural History at Yale).

In 1909, Sternberg published "The Life of a Fossil Hunter," a book which received high praise at the time of its publication:

""There are few hunters of live game who can tell so good a story, who has seen so much adventure, or experienced so many escapes. Such a record would in any case be interesting, but it becomes fascinating from the exuberance of its style and hearty enthusiasm that animates every page." ---San Francisco Argonaut, June 5th, 1909.

"Any body will instantly feel the spell of interest in Mr. Sternberg's autobiography 'The Life of a Fossil Hunter.' Mr. Sternberg writes simply, unpretentiously, entertainingly, and there runs all through his book a curious union of scientific devotion and religious reverence that is as unusual as it is charming." ---Chicago Herald, March 20th, 1909.

"A remarkable book. The author has a way of telling things that is charming because of its simplicity. He uses scientific terms only when necessary, and a child could read and understand this book." ---Lawrence Gazette, March 8th, 1909.



During the early years of the Bone Wars, Charles Sternberg collected fossils in Kansas for Edward Drinker Cope. He wrote two books: The Life of a Fossil Hunter (1909) and Hunting Dinosaurs in the Badlands of the Red Deer River, Alberta, Canada (1917). Fossils collected by Charles Sternberg, including dinosaurs from the western United States and Canada, are in museums around the world.

Contents:

I. Early Days And Work in The Dakota Group Of The Cretaceous
II. First Expedition To The Kansas Chalk (1876)
III. Expedition W1th Professor Cope To The Bad Lands Of The Upper Cretaceous (1876)
IV. Further Work in The Kansas Chalk (1877)
V. Discovery Of The Loup Fork Beds Of Kansas And Subsequent Work There (1877,1882-1884)
VI. Expedition To The Oregon Desert in 1877
VII. Expedition To The John Day River in 1878
VIII. First Expedition To The Permian Of Texas in 1882
IX. Expeditions in The Permian Of Texas For Professor Cope (1895-1897)
X. In The Red Beds Of Texas For The Royal Museum Of Munich (1901)
XI. Conclusion