Jurassic Mary: Mary Anning and the primeval monsters

by Patricia Pierce

Mary Anning (1799-1847) was one of the pioneers of the emerging science of geology - the first woman palaeontologist to make important discoveries. When she was just 12, she discovered the first whole ichthyosaurus skeleton; later, aged 22, she found the first whole skeleton of a plesiosaurus, and this find gained her international fame. She was unusual then - as she would be now - in being a woman geologist, and she was also a curiosity in being both provincial and lower class when science was dominated by upper class London gentlemen. During her lifetime she won the respect of contemporary scientists, receiving an annuity from the British Association for the Advancement of Science during the last decade of her life. Upon her death, Dickens wrote 'the carpenter's daughter has won a name for herself, and deserved to win it'. After her death, however, scientists wrote her out of their books, crediting instead the naturalists who had bought her specimens with her discoveries. It was inconceivable to them that an uneducated woman had produced such astonishing work. In this new book Patricia Pierce rescues the now little-known life of this extraordinary woman from undeserved obscurity to reveal her full and fascinating life

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Biography, Science, Palaeontology, Dinosaurs, 19th Century

238 pages, Hardcover

First published April 20, 2006

About the author

From Amazon:

Patricia (also Pat, P.M.) May Pierce (nee Culp), born 1943, was raised on a farm on Culp Road, Vineland, Ontario in the heart of Niagara's fruit lands. The family is descended from United Empire Loyalists, and from a young age she felt history all around her. Right next door was grandpa Joe Ed Culp, an amateur historian, who investigated local history. He also compiled a number of very detailed family trees, writing innumerable letters, while sitting at the kitchen table diligently bashing away on his antique typewriter.

With a knack for finding arrowheads in newly ploughed fields and orchards, it was easy for her to imagine the local native people hunting along the Twenty River and camping in nearby picturesque Jordan Hollow. On the family farm remains the huge old barn, built high for an earlier era (wheat) with a solid structure of massive tree trunks, some with the bark still on them. Parts of the barn are now listed as historic artifacts.

A graduate of The University of Waterloo, she joined the historic Ryerson Press in Toronto, Ontario. Ryerson was an old-style publishing house with presses and practices ranging from the Dickensian to the up-to-date. Older managers had been in the war together and avoided firing another veteran. It was not unheard of for a member of staff to retire after 60 years. The eccentricities of the authors - a poet with a bottle of wine might wander in before lunch for a relaxed chat - were often rivaled by those of the staff. The under-employed Advertising secretary might spend the day drawing up detailed astrological charts for colleagues followed by extensive discussion, that is, when she wan't studying electronic music. Yet in editorial meetings ideas for fine new books blossomed. (They were the first to publish Alice Munro in book form). It was all fascinating to a novice. Under one roof a successful book idea would appear and progress through all stages to printing, coming to rest in the attached warehouse. There, among the sky-high piles of books, the warehouse manager was constructing a sailboat. She was hooked on book publishing. This was wonderful. It was fun. But, of course, it had to end.

At this time Ryerson was taken over by super-efficient McGraw-Hill. The media and the public were enraged. The oldest publishing company in Canada could not be protected from a US takeover. (There was a change in the law as a result.)

It was time for a change. In 1973 came the first of 35 years in London, England, editing and writing books. With history and culture so densely to hand, and with the Continent so near, she traveled - on one adventure by motorcycle to Morocco (don't do it). She wrote and writes mainly on historical topics and the lives of the extraordinary people who make history. Her last in-house position in central London was as managing editor of a publishing house.

Patricia Pierce has returned to the Niagara Peninsula, writing and painting portraits - and still looking for arrowheads.

Reviews

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn't resist grabbing this when I came across it randomly in the library. I was hoping for more books on dinosaurs, but I'll take a biography of an amazing female scientist any day. The unfortunate thing about Mary Anning is that she wasn't treated as the professional she was. Or, rather, she was accepted as a professional fossil hunter, but she wasn't given the recognition she deserved. And unfortunately, a lot of what we know about her is framed by the male geologists and scientists who relied on her.

Still, Patricia Pierce does a decent job of bringing Mary Anning to life and pointing out how amazing her achievements were, given her social context. I could do with less speculation about her romantic life, about which there appears to be not a shred of proof. Maybe she just wasn't interested? But that didn't take up too much space: it just struck me as falling into the trap of seeing Mary Anning the way her contemporaries would've, with too much emphasis on her being a 'spinster'.

[Margaret Hanson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It would be hard to make a book about Mary Anning uninteresting. She's an absolutely fascinating woman who was ill served by history and attitudes at the time she was working. This book is definitely worth a read for that alone. That said, the actual structure leaves a bit to be desired. It could really use a bit of work in terms of organization because it generally recounts the story of Anning's life linearly, but sometimes will jump forward or backwards for no apparent reason.

[Timothy Rooney · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a reasonable book about Mary Anning, but I suspect there is actually very little information about her available. The first 30 pages (of 196 pages so roughly 15%) contain no information about Mary but introduce other people and events surrounding her life. Although at best tangentially relevant, it adds very little to the narrative. Along the same lines, the final 10 pages relate how the other characters in the biography end up. That's at least 20% of her biography NOT about her.

Now this might be justified if we had more details and information about Mary to see how these other characters fit in. But there's just so little about Mary in the book itself.

Now to the author's credit, it could have been easy to create excursions or adventures that Mary MIGHT have taken and use that historical fiction to enhance the book. The author does NOT do this.

Next, there is almost no scientific information in the book. I'm not sure where/how this decision was reached, but I believe it detracts from the book. Particularly because so little information about Mary is available, add scientific details of the work she did and how far-reaching/relevant that work was. Instead, we just learn she was very good at finding fossils.

Also, the biography does try to promote Mary as a pioneer in women's work in the scientific field. It does a reasonable job of this by detailing the perseverance and passion exhibited by Mary.

Next, we are introduced to the compassionate, giving, generous person that Mary was. Sadly, that is only referenced in general. Maybe no accounts exist of all the people Mary helped, and only generalizations account for her generosity?

As for the writing style, the book is organized chronologically. Unfortunately the writing style is not compelling. Although just average prose, nothing delights or keeps me wanting to read more. The only item that merits my very very slight recommendation is that at only 196 pages, it shouldn't take too long to read. But if you've got anything else on your pile of books to read, keep Jurassic Mary on the bottom of the stack.

[Michelle Casey · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent biography of Mary Anning and her unsung contribution to paleontology. I especially love the appendix that tells readers where all of her most famous finds are on display in England. The author provides lots of context on the i.portance of the fossils, the town and geology of Lyme Regis, and the more conventionally famous male paleontologists with whom she worked. I can't believe no one named a single fossil after her while she was alive. The ending made me pretty sad when, for all her fame, she died pretty much penniless and alone.

[Lewis Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderful overview of the accomplished but difficult life of Mary Anning. Delving into, at times, surprising depth in exploring her adventures upon the cliffs of Lyme Regis, Pierce's book is highly informative and vivid. She interweaves many lives of eccentric and contrarily traditional members of society into her account of Mary's life. In this respect, her poor and (what was seen at the time as) lowly status amongst society truly hits the reader. Joy from appreciating her achievements is soured by the fact her paleontological discoveries were utilised by others more wealthy, without credit. She was not able to be seen in her own time as a paleontologist or geologist, or even local authority. As Pierce conveys, her spinsterhood and unusual profession rendered her as much a curiosity as the very fossils she unearthed; a spectacle for the well-off learned traveller to visit. Anning was, for many, an attraction on many a visitor to Lyme's itinerary. This is a niche take on Anning's presence in history, and one I am glad this author makes persuasively through a comfortably flowing writing style.

[Brandy Cross · Rating 3 out of 5]

overly sensationalist and treats a topic from a modern viewpoint, poorly organized, written like a romance novel, maybe read this if you don't want to read nonfiction.

it does bring together most/all of the information we have on Mary anning so that at least it does well

[Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this intriguing account of Mary Anning, Patricia Pierce places the life and work of Mary Anning at its crossroads of science, history, and society. Despite Mary's place in society as a poor, not formally educated woman and her private character, Pierce draws on many sources to present Mary as a fossil hunter and geologists making significant finds and restorations which contributed to the establishment of geology and paleontology at the time. The book seems somewhat repetitious and tedious at times but the detail of other scientists and better positioned women most of whom knew and worked with Mary, is important to drawing out this hidden figure and the larger context of the plight of gifted women. The book is quite an enjoyable and engaging read.
Highly recommended to those interested in the development of science and especially paleontology, the contributions of women to academia, and the larger societal and historical context of the time (late 18th and 19th centuries pre-Darwin's Origin of the Species).

[Squib · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a mixture of social history, biography and a scientific history of Mary Anning, an amateur paleontologist from Lyme Regis whose numerous fossils findings were important to the scientific work of academic naturalists such as Cuvier, Richard Owen and Louis Agassiz though she was not fully recognized in her own time and sometimes recognition was omitted. Mary is also humanized in the process from the limited correspondences and personal diaries of her friends, showing her to be a kind, industrious working class woman that had a masterful level of knowledge regarding the fossils of Lyme Regis, which were collected primarily for money to help support herself and her community of fellow Christians. She also developed as a scientist on her own terms through her experiments and meticulous level of detail of the fossils that she found. If you're interested a book that illustrates the scientific working class (especially early in the context of modern naturalism/paleontology) that do the boring work that's often unacknowledged then I recommend this book to you.

[Ellie Cripps · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely an interesting book, and does an excellent job of setting Mary Anning's achievements in to the historical context without dismissing or overlooking her, which is what happened in her lifetime unfortunately. It was definitely a little dry in places as a read, which I find often happens with this kind of biography, but I still recommend it to someone looking for a thorough look in to the life of one of the parents of paleontology.

[Suzi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting biography of a woman not particularly known although she should e. At times this book repeats its facts but that will be due to there not being a whole lot of information known about Mary Anning herself, Patricia Pierce does a good job filling the book with all that is known of her and giving lots of good information about the people around her including important finds they themselves made.

[Joanna Leliwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am giving it 3 stars. It is a good comprehensive book on rather times of Mary Anning, not her clear biography and could be treated as an additional read to other books on that topic. This biography deserves 3 solid stars.

[Ruth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good read about one of the first to create the field of paleontology —and she was a 19th Century woman without means and with very little education. What is especially interesting was during these times people were beginning to wrestle with Creationism vs. Evolution.

[Ellen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. More an historical overview of Mary Anning’s times. Interesting in its own way.

[Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed reading more about this pioneering Woman paleontologist

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ordinary biography of an extraordinary woman and early paleontologist.

[Cindy · Rating 1 out of 5]

HATED the writing style. So much editorializing I couldn't get into it. May work for someone else, but not the book for me.

[Cazz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting book if a little muddled in the presentation. A story of a very unknown and underrated palaeontologist. I learnt a lot of social history alongside fossils.

[Charlotte Jenkin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting insight into Mary's life, her discoveries and the people around her. The book fully celebrates Mary and holds to account the men who tried to take credit for her work!

[Francisca · Rating 2 out of 5]

one take one takes from this book is a fairly clear idea of who Mary Anning was as well as her historical context. the main issue behind this result is how the who and when are told to you.

like all good cultural history books, this is not simply a biography of Anning but a retelling of multiple factors involved in her life and our understanding of her. being a female proto-archaeologist living in an English coastal town, this is also a book about women's roles in science and society during the late-Georgian and early-Victorian period, a book about the relationship between the incipient science of geology and religious beliefs, and a book about the economic and social changes a small town can undergo while riding alongside the changing tides of modernity. usually, this would be my jam; getting the full picture of a period through the lens of a single figure, yes, please. it's been done multiple times before and will continue to be done so because it works.

not so much in this case. up to a certain point, one does get the main ideas behind all these factors interacting with one another. up to a certain point, a sense of structure across and within each chapter becomes harder and harder to find. it would have been more favourable if this book had been structured in a thematic instead of a temporal sense; although there's an attempt at broaching different topics throughout different chapters, overseeing Anning's personal history as the main narrative engine meant some issues were discussed more than once, some people introduced several times, and conclusions being on the scarce side. questions are raised about relevant topics to Anning's life but answers are few and vague. one can tell Pierce is a good storyteller but lacks the formalistic skills to structure a large history.

[Fiona Hurley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read a fictional account of Mary Anning's life (Remarkable Creatures by Tracy Chevalier), and I've recently visited Lyme Regis (where Anning lived and worked). So I enjoyed the opportunity to read the real history behind this important figure in paleontology, and to "meet" some of the other characters such as Elizabeth Philpot and William Buckland. This book sticks to the facts, but provides some glimpses of Anning's personality, for example the fact that she could be "vinegary" at times but she was kind to children and invalids. The author points out that Anning had several disadvantages against her -- gender, social class, religion, her unmarried state, and living in what was then a backwater -- but she overcame the odds to become one of the most important contributors to a new science.

[Hyarrowen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mary Anning's story is a fascinating one, and made my blood boil from time to time – although she did get as much recognition for her pioneering work as a palaeontologist as any woman could have hoped for. I found the book a bit difficult to follow, as it hops around Mary's time-line a great deal, mentions discoveries in passing that aren't discussed in any detail, and relates Jane Austen's visit to Lyme via a writer in 1901 before we get to the full details of that visit. Distracting, but with a bit of patience, there's a lot of interest in this book.

ETA Aha, and I have just realised what the primeval monsters actually were. Nice one!

[julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

this is the most poorly-organized book I've read in ages. it's a shame, really, because Mary Anning is a fascinating subject - a real pioneer in the field of archaeology/geology - and as a woman, doubly so. The book hops all over, makes references to obscure people who it doesn't always explain and in general was a truly bumpy read.

[Gabor Hernadi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mary Anning was truly an exceptional woman. Daughter of a carpenter, was a poor, uneducated woman, who became one of the first palaeontologist, respected by lots of scientists. Unfortunately this book not worthy this amazing life. Badly edited, discursive, jumping in space and time without any apparent reason and it talks a lot more about anything else but Mary Anning's life itself. Shame.

[Trine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading for anyone interested in the history of fossils and the scientific discoveries of Mary Anning.

[Preetha Leela · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book. The movie was an absolute insult to the genius of Mary Anning.