INSPIRED AMATEURS

by Kevin Guinagh ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 29, 1937

Another book more adapted to young people's interest than to adults. A collection of brief biographies dealing with -- for the most part -- familiar names in various fields of science, philosophy, etc., and here revealed from the angle of their amateur status. Fabre was a poor pedagogue; Priestley was a preacher (and a chemist by avocation); Herschel was a musician and his astronomical observations were palpably amateurish in method; Mendel was a monk; Hugh Miller started as a stone-mason; Leeuwenhoek started as a janitor; Schliemann made vast sums of money in commerce to satisfy a childish ambition to discover the real Troy; the historian Grote left school at sixteen; the philosopher Spinoza was a lense grinder. New angle to bring this material together -- should have good sale with boys and girls for school and public libraries. Can't see wide adult sale.

Pub Date: Sept. 29, 1937

ISBN: 1406715425

Page Count: -

Publisher: Longmans, Green

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1937

Categories: NONFICTION