Grove Karl Gilbert: A Great Engine of Research

by Stephen J. Pyne

As Stephen Pyne reveals in his biography, few other scientists can match Grove Karl Gilbert’s range of talents. A premier explorer of the American West who made major contributions to the cascade of new discoveries about the earth, Gilbert described two novel forms of mountain building, invented the concept of the graded stream, inaugurated modern theories of lunar origin, helped found the science of geomorphology, and added to the canon of conservation literature.    Gilbert knew most of geology's grand figures--including John Wesley Powell, Clarence Dutton,  and Clarence King--and Pyne's chronicle of the imperturbable, quietly unconventional Gilbert is couterpointed with sketches of these prominent scientists. The man who wrote that "happiness is sitting under a tent with walls uplifted, just after a brief shower,", created answers to the larger questions of the earth in ways that have become classics of his science.

312 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 1980

Reviews

[Bob Holland · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am a big fan of Stephen Pyne and I really enjoy reading about the men that explored and studied the Colorado Plateau and the Basin Range region. So, I thought I would enjoy this book. I really wanted to like this book, but I could not finish it. I made it about half way and finally gave up.

The following review is posted on Amazon and I agree with it completely:
" A Textbook Biography
Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2012
If you're looking for a compelling story about this man, Grove Karl Gilbert, this is not your book. It is a very informative report on the man's career laid out in textbook fashion. Other than that, the prose lacks the depth for one to actually care personally about the subject. In this biography, Gilbert is depicted as a painful wallflower that goes to the extreme to avoid attention. And while yes, many a bright mind is the introvert, toward the end of the book this deferring of the spotlight becomes mostly claustrophobic to the reader. Another drawback to the layout of this biography is that it is arranged by achievements, not chronologically (as you would expect a story about a geologist that is hinting strongly at geologic evolution). That's fine, but within one subheading we're jumping thirty years backwards and forwards and backwards and onto another milestone that briefly ties to the current one, and then off again. I'm sure Pyne was using the material available to him. It's regrettable that more of Gilbert's personal notes were not included in this piece. The book is perhaps 80 pages too long, fleshing out the surrounding characters of the time Gilbert came into contact with. That's fine too, but too much time is spent on other peripheral persons, and not enough on the subject. If you are looking for reference material to write a report on Gilbert, this is the publication for you. A compelling personal story it is not."