Re: dino's at the used book store!

["jrc" <jrccea@bellsouth.net>]

This is not a paleontological opinion, but Sprague was a superb hard science 
fiction author (read his early Viagens Interplanetarias series from the 
1940's -- it still holds up well; or alternatively try 'A Gun for Dinosaur' 
orignially published in the March 1956 issue of Galaxy magazine, AGFD was 
part of Sprague's Rivers of Time series and paleontological references in it 
were updated for the book of the same name in 1979 ), he was an excellent 
mechanical engineer, and among his other works, did a superb non-fiction 
book on historical technology  (The Ancient Engineers, Doubleday), 
Catherine was brilliant as well and started collaborating on the writing 
during Sprague's later years.  During WWII, Sprague did research work at the 
Philadelphia Naval Yard together with Isaac Asimov and Robert and Ginny 
Heinlein (Robert was also a mechanical engineer; like Isaac, Ginny's 
background was in Chemistry).  Robert, Ginny, Catherine, and Sprague were 
very close and stayed in touch over the years. As an aside, Sprague, Robert, 
and Ginny were all naval officers.
JimC

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "B tH" <soylentgreenistrex@yahoo.com>
To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Saturday, July 04, 2009 5:05 PM
Subject: dino's at the used book store!


> Today's 4th-of-July Brownian motion carried past a used book store in 
> Florence, SC.
>
> I found "THE DAY OF THE DINOSAUR" by L. Sprague de Camp and Catherine 
> Crook de Camp  -  not a bad little book - this is from 1985 and some 
> things are now a tad radically different from what I see on the DML.  Any 
> professional opinions on this tome?