First published 2022
Henry Fairfield Osborn watches the American Museum of Natural History struggle toward irrelevance in Gilded Age New York. The privileged socialite needs a miracle to fill the empty exhibition halls and restore his reputation. That miracle arrives in the form of Barnum Brown, a Kansas fossil hunter who has just discovered something extraordinary in the Montana badlands. Brown has unearthed the first Tyrannosaurus Rex fossils, bones belonging to a predator with four foot jaws and the speed to chase down prey at twenty five miles per hour. Osborn recognizes the discovery's potential immediately. The T. Rex represents a prehistoric world more intricate than scientists ever imagined. As crowds flock to see the towering skeleton and marvel at this vanished titan, Brown and Osborn transform dinosaurs from scientific curiosities into cultural phenomena. Their partnership takes them from the harsh American West to Manhattan's elite social circles, where robber barons and opportunists scheme alongside genuine scientists. The story spans continents and centuries, revealing how one monstrous discovery changed humanity's understanding of Earth itself.
Genres: biography, historical-fiction, 20th-century, adventure, dinosaurs, 19th-century, museums, american-history
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: based-on-true-events, unlikely-partnership
Setting: American Museum of Natural History, Gilded Age New York, Kansas, Montana
Period: Gilded Age
288 pages · Hardcover · W. W. Norton & Company