Queries regarding vintage,
collectable dinosaur books.
I occasionally receive emails from other collectors of vintage dinosaur
books inquiring about particular books.
Usually the collector remembers certain details about the book, but
cannot recollect the title or name of the author.
I have been through this myself. When I first started rebuilding
and expanding my dinosaur book collection
several years ago, there were four books that haunted me. I have
since found three. The fourth one still haunts
me because I remember so little about the book. It was written at
the elementary school level, it contained color
illustrations (I remember it contained an illustration of an
Ornitholestes), and it was published before 1952 (I
remember my oldest brother disparaging the book because it was older
than he was!--he was born in 1952). So,
very little information to go on, but I am sure if I see it I will
recognize it.
Following are some queries that I have received from viewers of my web
page regarding old dinosaur books.
Please take a look at these descriptions and if any of them ring a
bell, contact me at

and I will forward your response to the person sending in the query.
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Query sent May 21, 2009:
"I have been looking for a children's
dinosaur book that came out in the
sixties (or maybe the fifties). I don't
know the author or the title,
but the book presented the history of life on Earth as a stage play
complete with
curtains framing each scene. The 'acts' were in
chronological order. I want to find a copy of of this book and
if my
description rings a bell, maybe you could help me out."
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Query sent June 14th, 2009:
I'm at the end of my rope, and you
might be the only person who can help me!
When I was a kid, I got interested in dinosaurs based on one book I
checked out from my library (I was in
first grade). Anyway, I've just recently gotten interested again; I
have a fairly large fossil collection, and I've
been trying to find all the old books I loved as a kid. I've been
incredibly successful, except for this one book,
the book that started it all. I hope that you can tell me the name and
author of the book if I describe it to
you! (I would soooooooo greatly appreciate it.)
I would have checked out the book in 1976. It was one of those books
that only had one color on a page (those
colors were usualy blue or green, depending on the page). There was an
image of a dinosaur (perhaps a T-rex
or Allosaurs) peering into the upper window of a two-story house, if I
remember correctly. One of the early
illustrations in the book also had an eryops-like animal from the
Permian, coming out of the weeds, possibly
near a lake. The last illustration of the book, I believe, was of the
earth from outer space, with dinosaurs
standing on out, circling the upper half. They were, of course, totally
out of proportion to reality. I'm guessing t
his book was written in the 1960s (give or take a few years in the late
50s or early 70s).
Do you have any idea what this book is???
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