What do you think?
Rate this book
Attending Marvels: A Patagonian Journal
A journal of Patagonia
289 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 1982
5 people are currently reading
180 people want to read
About the author
George Gaylord Simpson
172 books15 followersGeorge Gaylord Simpson, Ph.D. (Geology, Yale University, 1926), was Professor of Geosciences at the University of Arizona from 1968 until his retirement in 1982. Previously was Curator of the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University 1959–1970, Curator of the Department of Geology and Paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History 1945–1959, and Professor of Zoology at Columbia University.
He was awarded the Linnean Society of London's prestigious Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1958. Simpson also received the Royal Society's Darwin Medal 'In recognition of his distinguished contributions to general evolutionary theory, based on a profound study of palaeontology, particularly of vertebrates,' in 1962. In 1966, Simpson received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
He was awarded the Linnean Society of London's prestigious Darwin-Wallace Medal in 1958. Simpson also received the Royal Society's Darwin Medal 'In recognition of his distinguished contributions to general evolutionary theory, based on a profound study of palaeontology, particularly of vertebrates,' in 1962. In 1966, Simpson received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
August 21, 2020
I have a general rule: if I come across a book that was once part of the Time Reading Program, it is worth buying. I don’t have to check the reviews, or read the introduction, I just buy it. The Time Reading Program was a short-lived book club in the 1960s, and I don’t know how the editors selected their titles, but they did a brilliant job. I have never been disappointed with one of their books, and some of them, long out of print and almost forgotten, have been among the best I have read in recent years, such as William Irvine’s Apes, Angels, and Victorians, Margaret Leech’s Reveille in Washington, Marston Bates’ The Forest and the Sea, and Gontran de Poncins’ Kabloona. You can add this one to that list.
There is something about Patagonia that stirs the imagination. Occasionally beautiful, but windy, cold, and bleak most of the time, often dangerous either because of its climate, its remoteness, or its inhabitants, some of whom settled there because they were no longer welcome in places with laws and lawmen. Bruce Chatwin went there, and wrote one of the all-time great travel books, In Patagonia, published in 1977. I don’t remember if he specifically cited Attending Marvels as one of his inspirations, but I would be surprised if he had not read it, since there are many similarities in style and tone between the two books.
George Gaylord Simpson was, according to Wikipedia, “perhaps the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century” He was 28 years old in 1930, and during his trip to Patagonia he discovered many previously unknown fossils, helping to fill in of the gaps in the record. He wrote with insight and enthusiasm about his fossil finds, but the book is primarily a travelogue about the people he met and the places he went.
He arrived in Buenos Aires just as it was convulsed by revolution, and bloody battles took place around him. At one point he had to plead with a woman to take refuge in her house, because army troops were shooting on sight anyone found in the streets. During a ceasefire he went to a government office building to try to get permits for Patagonia, only to find it empty; the officials who worked there were at home desperately packing to flee the city.
Once order was restored he set about the business of forming up his expedition, hiring assistants, porters, cooks, and field workers, as well as vehicles, whose unreliability would be a continuous theme during his travels. Early in his trip he stopped at an inn and remarked, “Here at Casa Ramos tonight there are two Argentinos, a Spaniard, an Italian, a Russian, a Portuguese, a North American, and a lad half Lithuanian and half Chilean Indian. Among us we talk eight or nine languages, but no two of us can converse in any language but Spanish, which half of us do not speak it at all fluently.” That night’s stay would be emblematic of his travels, as Patagonia seemed to be a magnet for all the world’s lost and rootless, those who had exhausted all other possibilities and were making one last attempt to get their lives together.
At one point he overheard a conversation by two of his hired companions, one of whom did not quite grasp the concept of fossil hunting.
“The señor doctor is crazy, isn’t he?” asked Manual.
“I don’t think so. Why?” put in loyal Justino.
“He came down to this desert for no reason! No one watches him and he still works hard! And what sort of work is that? Climbing around the barranca and getting all tired out, just picking up scraps of rock. As if there were not rocks everywhere, even in that America of the North!”
“But those are not rocks. They are bones.”
“They why doesn’t he stay in Buenos Aires and get bones from a slaughter-house, if anyone is fool enough to pay him for them?”
“They are not common bones. They are not sheep or guanaco. They are very old, so antique that they have turned to stone. They are bones of animals that now do not exist, and they are not found anywhere but here.”
“The señor is fooling you. Even if they were old bones they would not be any good. What would you do with them?”
“He says that some of them are the ancestors of our own animals and he wants to learn where they came from and what they were like millions of years ago. And other are strange beasts that are not like those of today. He will put them in a museum and people will come to see them because they are so queer.”
Patagonia is famous for its howling winds, and Simpson does a good job describing them. “The strongest wind I have every seen was blowing on the barranca today. To climb over the crest I had to crawl on my belly and in a less cautious moment I was knocked down and almost blown over the cliff. At one time going into the wind down a slope too steep to stand on at all ordinarily, we could walk leaning forward at an apparently fatal angle, support by the constant gale in our faces.”
His group was often received with great hospitality at the isolated ranches and road houses, and he gives colorful descriptions of the local hunters, cowboys, and ranchers. Central to any gathering was the ceremony of maté, a drink predating the arrival of the Europeans, made from the leaves of the yerba plant, and drunk through a perforated straw. There was a dignity and formality to brewing and passing around the drink, and then silently drinking it. It was a bonding ritual for strangers in a harsh land who came together to share a sense of community.
Simpson had a talent for describing his surroundings, and throughout the book his writing is vivid and memorable. He observes the locals patiently and respects the fortitude they show in surviving in an unforgiving land. There are comic episodes, generally caused by some misunderstanding, with sometimes serious consequences, but in the end everything works out. As he is describing his travels he also discusses the bones he has found, their age they lived in, and their relationships, if any, to living species.
This is a fine book, almost forgotten today. Anyone who liked Chatwin’s In Patagonia would surely like this as well. It is one of those that I have put on my list to re-read at some point, and I am sure I will enjoy it just as much the second time through.
There is something about Patagonia that stirs the imagination. Occasionally beautiful, but windy, cold, and bleak most of the time, often dangerous either because of its climate, its remoteness, or its inhabitants, some of whom settled there because they were no longer welcome in places with laws and lawmen. Bruce Chatwin went there, and wrote one of the all-time great travel books, In Patagonia, published in 1977. I don’t remember if he specifically cited Attending Marvels as one of his inspirations, but I would be surprised if he had not read it, since there are many similarities in style and tone between the two books.
George Gaylord Simpson was, according to Wikipedia, “perhaps the most influential paleontologist of the twentieth century” He was 28 years old in 1930, and during his trip to Patagonia he discovered many previously unknown fossils, helping to fill in of the gaps in the record. He wrote with insight and enthusiasm about his fossil finds, but the book is primarily a travelogue about the people he met and the places he went.
He arrived in Buenos Aires just as it was convulsed by revolution, and bloody battles took place around him. At one point he had to plead with a woman to take refuge in her house, because army troops were shooting on sight anyone found in the streets. During a ceasefire he went to a government office building to try to get permits for Patagonia, only to find it empty; the officials who worked there were at home desperately packing to flee the city.
Once order was restored he set about the business of forming up his expedition, hiring assistants, porters, cooks, and field workers, as well as vehicles, whose unreliability would be a continuous theme during his travels. Early in his trip he stopped at an inn and remarked, “Here at Casa Ramos tonight there are two Argentinos, a Spaniard, an Italian, a Russian, a Portuguese, a North American, and a lad half Lithuanian and half Chilean Indian. Among us we talk eight or nine languages, but no two of us can converse in any language but Spanish, which half of us do not speak it at all fluently.” That night’s stay would be emblematic of his travels, as Patagonia seemed to be a magnet for all the world’s lost and rootless, those who had exhausted all other possibilities and were making one last attempt to get their lives together.
At one point he overheard a conversation by two of his hired companions, one of whom did not quite grasp the concept of fossil hunting.
“The señor doctor is crazy, isn’t he?” asked Manual.
“I don’t think so. Why?” put in loyal Justino.
“He came down to this desert for no reason! No one watches him and he still works hard! And what sort of work is that? Climbing around the barranca and getting all tired out, just picking up scraps of rock. As if there were not rocks everywhere, even in that America of the North!”
“But those are not rocks. They are bones.”
“They why doesn’t he stay in Buenos Aires and get bones from a slaughter-house, if anyone is fool enough to pay him for them?”
“They are not common bones. They are not sheep or guanaco. They are very old, so antique that they have turned to stone. They are bones of animals that now do not exist, and they are not found anywhere but here.”
“The señor is fooling you. Even if they were old bones they would not be any good. What would you do with them?”
“He says that some of them are the ancestors of our own animals and he wants to learn where they came from and what they were like millions of years ago. And other are strange beasts that are not like those of today. He will put them in a museum and people will come to see them because they are so queer.”
Patagonia is famous for its howling winds, and Simpson does a good job describing them. “The strongest wind I have every seen was blowing on the barranca today. To climb over the crest I had to crawl on my belly and in a less cautious moment I was knocked down and almost blown over the cliff. At one time going into the wind down a slope too steep to stand on at all ordinarily, we could walk leaning forward at an apparently fatal angle, support by the constant gale in our faces.”
His group was often received with great hospitality at the isolated ranches and road houses, and he gives colorful descriptions of the local hunters, cowboys, and ranchers. Central to any gathering was the ceremony of maté, a drink predating the arrival of the Europeans, made from the leaves of the yerba plant, and drunk through a perforated straw. There was a dignity and formality to brewing and passing around the drink, and then silently drinking it. It was a bonding ritual for strangers in a harsh land who came together to share a sense of community.
Simpson had a talent for describing his surroundings, and throughout the book his writing is vivid and memorable. He observes the locals patiently and respects the fortitude they show in surviving in an unforgiving land. There are comic episodes, generally caused by some misunderstanding, with sometimes serious consequences, but in the end everything works out. As he is describing his travels he also discusses the bones he has found, their age they lived in, and their relationships, if any, to living species.
This is a fine book, almost forgotten today. Anyone who liked Chatwin’s In Patagonia would surely like this as well. It is one of those that I have put on my list to re-read at some point, and I am sure I will enjoy it just as much the second time through.
July 30, 2012
The author covers many topics and does it skillfully. He covers the 1930 Argentine revolution, paleontology, sociology in a frontier society, wildlife, native hunting methods, games, Geology, bone digging and more. His comment on the dismissal of a sullen cook: "We parted with mutual and entirely insincere expressions of high esteem." On Paleontology: "These strata will again be exposed along the sides of the valleys and ravines, and some paleontologist of a higher race in that dim future can here collect relics of the twentieth century and study it's quaint, extinct life, just as we are studying the life of the year 45,000,000 B.C." I am enjoying it very much. It is a goodread.
September 16, 2009
Fascinating, even thrilling at times, this travelogue-science tome is also a beautiful book to read. The paleontology described here is a wonder and Patagonia comes alive in Simpson's journal. It leads you on a trip into several lost worlds at once. South American fauna before the Isthmus of Panama rose, but also into the isolated and harsh lives of the Patagonians. The best part of the trip is the author's outlook and vision. He is endlessly curious, delighted with everything in the natural world, and able to appreciate and communicate with people who are culturally different from him. Fans of Loren Eiseley should enjoy this book.
June 2, 2008
I really liked this true diary of a 28 year old archeologist's first dig in the 1930s-- in desolate Patagonia. It's probably not something I'd recommend to most people, because he is still a scientist giving us lists of local animals etc., but he had a wonderful personality that shines through. He was a professor into his 80s and was probably viewed with affection by his students his whole life.
August 28, 2018
This is an unlikely book, a diary, that takes the reader on a wonderful journey and adventure in 1932. It was written by and about a young geologist who is about gathering old bones buried millions of years ago. The work is dangerous. It requires courage, endurance and an unbelievable tolerance of pain. Their food is borderline edible. The weather is constant wind. It reads like an old sci fi story, written a hundred years ago about space explorers who land on Mars. They find strange creatures similar to humans but very primitive. Communication is limited and rules and laws are created on the spot to fit the immediate situation. Simpson spins the tale into a wonderful story that is a striking examination of human nature. He entertains us with good humor and explains the work of geology with great clarity. A good read.
June 29, 2020
This is usually not my genre of reading, and I had this book for many, many years purchased when I was taking a course in geology. I set it aside and just now decided to read it or throw it out! What a surprise! It was so well written and entertaining! George Gaylord Simpson reports on an expedition he took in 1930 when he was in his twenties into the forlorn, uncharted area of Argentina, the wilderness of Patagonian which at that time was hardly populated in search of fossils. This book is his journal of his daily life on this expedition. Yes, we discover some great fossils which would end up at the American museum of Natural History in NY and descriptions of the geological area, but what was delightful was the people he met, the animals, birds, etc that he observed. I thought I would be bored but NO!🤓
April 17, 2008
If you plan to travel in Patagonia, this book is a great travelogue of a man who only later went on to become a famous biologist. The adventures are great, the humor is high, and Buenos Aires hasn't changed a bit. As someone going through bureaucratic hurdles and exploring the steppe, I couldn't get enough of it. But it would be fun to read even if you never go to Argentina. Note: out of print, but available used (cheap) online, or at your library.
February 18, 2012
I was lucky enough to find this at the local thrift store (too bad it's out of print). A fast read about the landscape, and life, of Patagonia, written by one of the most influential paleontologists of the twentieth century.
February 21, 2024
The subject of the book is actually as stated in the sub-title. Marvels? Not so much. I expected more description of the relics and bones uncovered from the ancient rock of prehistoric times. But the journal touches on that subject seemingly as an aside between the author’s descriptions of the people and their precarious habitations in a landscape of stark and dreary barrenness.
In a preface by an editor Mr. Simpson is said to have been only 28 years old in 1930 when his eight-month expedition to Patagonia took place. He and a colleague sailed from New York to approximately Rio de Janeiro, from where they drove to Buenos Aires, where they happened to encounter the beginning of a real life Revolution in the city streets. This delayed their departure into the Patagonian Pampas due to difficulty obtaining official permits for fossil hunting in that Argentine area.
Once secured with the proper papers, however, the intrepid duo hired a couple of locals as a cook and a “helper,” and drove west, north, south, and all around the most desolate landscape imaginable in search of specimens of prehistoric animals long since buried in the sandy (or muddy) and rocky hillocks, valleys and cliff sides of treeless, largely uninhabited landscape. They camped, did most of their truck driving over roadless, usually flat, but sometimes hilly dirt, and also did a lot of hiking up and down the steeper mounds or cliffs. They studied the desert animals of the time (ostriches, armadillos, something called guanacos, mice), and suffered mosquitos and other insects despite a constant ferocious wind and sometimes serious rain storms that prevented exiting their tents. They made acquaintance with sheep herders who lived in tin shacks and generally provided dining and sleeping accommodations for whatever “guests” wandered by. The author describes all of these “innkeepers,” their personalities, their families, their histories of how and why they came to live their seemingly chosen lives of poverty. (No further reference is ever made to the Revolution taking place in other parts of Argentina at the time, although there were some mysterious horsemen—hunters or bandits—encountered occasionally.)
There were several small “towns” a few hundred miles apart from each other that also offered overnight accommodations and apparently skilled mechanics, for the vehicle owned by our two paleontologists constantly broke down or flatted tires in the mud and rocks and sand in which they frequently became “stuck.” Mr. Simpson’s partner Coley was also seemingly a master mechanic, for he frequently was able to repair the truck himself. Their food for the entire duration was mostly mutton three times a day, for vegetation was almost non-existent. They had to carry their own water in barrels or tanks, for the sparse lakes and streams nearby their camps were generally muddy or otherwise contaminated. Alcohol drinks were offered by the scattered way-stations.
By the end, we are assured that some very fine extinct animal skeletons were found, carefully extracted and wrapped in preservative materials, and crated for shipment back to the sponsor of the expedition, the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Despite some photographs and a few drawings in the book, however, there are none of the fossils.
In a preface by an editor Mr. Simpson is said to have been only 28 years old in 1930 when his eight-month expedition to Patagonia took place. He and a colleague sailed from New York to approximately Rio de Janeiro, from where they drove to Buenos Aires, where they happened to encounter the beginning of a real life Revolution in the city streets. This delayed their departure into the Patagonian Pampas due to difficulty obtaining official permits for fossil hunting in that Argentine area.
Once secured with the proper papers, however, the intrepid duo hired a couple of locals as a cook and a “helper,” and drove west, north, south, and all around the most desolate landscape imaginable in search of specimens of prehistoric animals long since buried in the sandy (or muddy) and rocky hillocks, valleys and cliff sides of treeless, largely uninhabited landscape. They camped, did most of their truck driving over roadless, usually flat, but sometimes hilly dirt, and also did a lot of hiking up and down the steeper mounds or cliffs. They studied the desert animals of the time (ostriches, armadillos, something called guanacos, mice), and suffered mosquitos and other insects despite a constant ferocious wind and sometimes serious rain storms that prevented exiting their tents. They made acquaintance with sheep herders who lived in tin shacks and generally provided dining and sleeping accommodations for whatever “guests” wandered by. The author describes all of these “innkeepers,” their personalities, their families, their histories of how and why they came to live their seemingly chosen lives of poverty. (No further reference is ever made to the Revolution taking place in other parts of Argentina at the time, although there were some mysterious horsemen—hunters or bandits—encountered occasionally.)
There were several small “towns” a few hundred miles apart from each other that also offered overnight accommodations and apparently skilled mechanics, for the vehicle owned by our two paleontologists constantly broke down or flatted tires in the mud and rocks and sand in which they frequently became “stuck.” Mr. Simpson’s partner Coley was also seemingly a master mechanic, for he frequently was able to repair the truck himself. Their food for the entire duration was mostly mutton three times a day, for vegetation was almost non-existent. They had to carry their own water in barrels or tanks, for the sparse lakes and streams nearby their camps were generally muddy or otherwise contaminated. Alcohol drinks were offered by the scattered way-stations.
By the end, we are assured that some very fine extinct animal skeletons were found, carefully extracted and wrapped in preservative materials, and crated for shipment back to the sponsor of the expedition, the American Museum of Natural History in New York. Despite some photographs and a few drawings in the book, however, there are none of the fossils.
June 26, 2023
Reputed as one of the foremost paleontologists of the 20th Century, this is the first book by George Gaylord Simpson. It recounts his journeys in Patagonia in the early 1930s, including various pioneering digs in that region. The work is presumably valuable to students of the history of paleontology, but more so to the common reader for its detailed observations of place, time and culture. Stylistically, it reminds me of Farley Mowatt - not least that one feels in it a vague ambivalence to scrupulous accuracy. It is said that a good author should never let truth get in there way of a good story. It is probably unfair, but I am left feeling that Simpson here follows this dictum.
The depictions and characterizations of people and culture make for very uncomfortable reading now. Let's call it for what it is: racism. These viewpoints were so ingrained and prevalent that the author clearly believed that he was being liberal and relatively dispassionate. This aspect of the book is sure to relegate it to oblivion. It is a connondrum because, despite these grave shortcomings, it provides a rare window on Patagonia of that time. Simpson is also a gifted writer and raconteur. Does one ignore these works or read them with a critical eye?
The depictions and characterizations of people and culture make for very uncomfortable reading now. Let's call it for what it is: racism. These viewpoints were so ingrained and prevalent that the author clearly believed that he was being liberal and relatively dispassionate. This aspect of the book is sure to relegate it to oblivion. It is a connondrum because, despite these grave shortcomings, it provides a rare window on Patagonia of that time. Simpson is also a gifted writer and raconteur. Does one ignore these works or read them with a critical eye?
June 3, 2024
A very intriguing recounting of an expedition to Patagonia! It felt like a culmination of a travel guide with subjective commentary that wasn't overbearing or saturated. I feel like I got a sense of the author and his point of view and felt like I was part of the expedition team. That being said, as this was mainly a paleontology expedition, I would have enjoyed a lot more information on that process, apart from the basic explanation the author already gives. Also, it was interesting to read through his commentary, bordering on discontent, of the continent. But this just brings the point home, Patagonia is a tough place, and it takes a malleable sort of tough to love in Patagonia.
September 27, 2021
I love an account of an adventure into new territory. Add discovery of new life forms and usually I’m all yours. Mix in a foreign culture and tea etiquette, sure.
This tome and it’s bleak depiction of weather, road quality and financial straits of Patagonia’s agrarian culture seemed fitting during the pandemic.
I can’t say there was much about paleontology, though.
So did this pandemic read become shadenfreundlich? It’s composition was small, like a freshman essay. It left me smaller.
This tome and it’s bleak depiction of weather, road quality and financial straits of Patagonia’s agrarian culture seemed fitting during the pandemic.
I can’t say there was much about paleontology, though.
So did this pandemic read become shadenfreundlich? It’s composition was small, like a freshman essay. It left me smaller.
January 8, 2026
I think George Gaylord Simpson is my new role model. This book was delightfully witty and human and raw and wild. I feel one with the places he records and I mourn about their changes with him. A stunning narrative from one of the most important figures in paleontology and a book I’ll not forget. Bravo
January 8, 2017
A great book about Patagonia. Makes one laugh out loud. A must read if visiting there in person but a good read for those who like to visit by reading.
October 23, 2011
Nice travel journal. Apart from the descriptions of a million times getting stuck in the mud of Patagonia, there are interesting descriptions of people, places and oddities of Patagonia. It especially starts great, with the author being in the thick of a revolution in Buenos Aires as they are waiting to obtain permits for their expedition. Of course being from 1930, it must be a bit outdated as a travel guide, but it is interesting all the same.
March 27, 2015
This ranks as one of my favorite travel books. George Gaylord Simpson captured the heart and character of the 1920s Patagonia with the amazement of a newcomer and the trained eye of a scientist. His portrayal of the people and landscape (and wind!) were amusing and still accurate to this day.
If you're heading that way, the main roads are paved now. :)
If you're heading that way, the main roads are paved now. :)
March 19, 2009
Good presentation of paleo fieldwork in Patagonia, but tends to ramble a bit too much for my taste sometimes. It's helping me out a surprising amount with my South American archaeology studies though...
August 20, 2011
Good humor, great stories, high adventures. Very inspiring and definitely recommended.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews