Re: Dino fiction

[San Diego Natural History Museum Library <libsdnhm@CLASS.ORG>]

Well, my colleague Patrick Butler and I assembled a list of murder 
mysteries set in/around/about museums for a presentation at the American 
Association of Museums meeting last year. "Murder in the Museum" has gone 
over very well every time it is presented and the updated bibliography 
will be printed in the AAM Sourcebook this year, as will our first 
filmography, "Museums at the Movies." This is all part of a larger 
project on popular culture and the public image of museums. Patrick is 
taking the art and history angle; I am working on the natural history 
side. It may even turn into a book with extensive annotated 
bibliographies. If you are planning to be at AAM in Philadelphia this 
year, we will be presnting "Museums at the Movies," and dinosaur 
representations will be discussed.

Dinosaur-related books and movies are disproportionately represented and I 
would be glad to send a copy of the lists to anyone interested. I'll give 
you one example: in  _Murder by Reference_ by D. R. Meredith (set in the 
not-at-all-disguised Panhandle-Plains Museum in Texas), you will find the 
only death by Triceratops exhibit that I know of. 

Of course, if anyone has suggestions for works to include in our lists, 
please send them on. This has turned out to be an extremely interesting
way to explore where many of the public biases about museums, 
collections, and collections workers are reflected. Right now I am trying 
to pull together every instance in a 50s movie where someone intones 
"There are things man was not meant to know" or the equivalent.

Anita Cohen-Williams has a bibliography of archaeology in fiction 
available through the ARCH-L listserver. Since many writers can't keep 
archaeo and paleo separate, there are a few overlap works here, too.

Cheers,
Sally Shelton
Director, Collections Care and Conservation
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On Thu, 2 Mar 1995, Ralph Chapman wrote:

> 
> So I lied about keeping my mouth shut.
> 
> J.J. Liston inquires about dino related fiction. There are a number
> of paleontologists with similar interest. I know Sans in Madrid is one,
> as well as Mike Brett-Surman, Tom "Mr. Dino" Holtz, Jim "Steve Dallas"
> Farlow and a bunch of others. I have toyed with the idea of assembling
> a list of paleo=related stories, poetry and novels and perhaps it's
> time to go further with it. I have a pile of 30-50 books I've set aside
> without trying to look hard, I'll try to compile a list of em for
> anybody interested and, hopefully, anybody willing to do same. i have
> a copy of the Parasaurians, I'll dig it up.
> 
> Ralph "more brief this time" Chapman, NMNH
> 
>