What to read after Under A Lucky Star?

All the world knows that Roy Chapman Andrews is the discoverer of the dinosaur Eggs, for these small and fragile relics of an inconceivably remote past fired the public’s imagination and were the sensation of their day. These eggs, however, were only an incident, and by no means the most important incident, in a rich, exciting, and valuable career. Now Andrews looks back over that life, weighs the relative importance of its many chapters, relives the finest moments, and regards with wonder the chance and good fortune that shaped his way.

The author’s position as a naturalist is almost unique in that he was both a field operation and museum man, both an explorer and an administrator. His book, thus, is only in part concerned with the many voyages—landmarks of scientific history—that began with the first scientific study of the whale and culminated in the great forays into the forbidding Gobi region in quest of the birthplace of mammal life. Andrews has been on the staff of the American Museum of Natural History for almost all his adult life, and he records fascinating glimpses of the adventures and discoveries that take place behind the doors marked “private”. A man who attempts expeditions on the grand scale, moreover, must be a financier, a field marshal, and at times a diplomat of no mean subtlety. Andrews played all those roles with gusto, and recalls here the outstanding exploits.

And the author is not a specialist whose vision is confined to bones and carcasses and show cases. He was for many years a leading figure in the hectic international society of the Orient, and he gives unforgettable pictures of life in Yokohama, Singapore, Tokyo, Port Said, Peking, and other storied cities of the East.

Andrews believes he was born under a lucky star. The reader will decide that he hitched his wagon to it and had the courage to hang on. It is an enviable life he has led; it makes wonderfully engrossing reading.