h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Book note 2/2/05

Posted Feb 2, 2006

I've been reading these and didn't want to forget about them.

Thinker's Library
MEN OF THE DAWN
DOROTHY DAVISON
First published in the Thinker's Library, 1934.
Second edition, 1944

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION
War conditions and the intrnational range of the subject have condemned this edition to a somewhat patchy form, but it is hoped that new oddments of information which may seem rather dull in themselves will give the reader a framework in which to place discoveries and theories that appear in journals from time to time.
DOROTHY DAVISON
Manchester, Jan., 1944

PREFACE
These are most difficult days in which to write a short book on prehistoric man. Discoveries and theories are pouring in so rapidly that long explanations are needed to give a balanced view of the various aspects of the subject.
Although it is not easy to keep abreast of all the new knowledge, yet it is fascinating to live in such progressive times. The subject is as full of thrills, problems, and surprises as a detective story, but unlike the best detective story it never ends. It calls for all the imagination and scientific thought that the best minds can give, and in return it opens up new vistas of understanding and gives breadth and colour to one's outlook.
The present generation could, if it would, see the results of many mistakes it is now making in the story of man's evolution.
With all its romance, beauty, and psychological problems archaeology is far from being the dry-as-dust subject of popular imagination.
I wish most sincerely to thank Professor Elliot Smith, F.R.S., Professor Fleure, D.Sc., and the Rev. J.F. Shepherd, M.A., for the help they have so readily given me.
DOROTHY DAVISON
Manchester, 1934

-slightly linked, but not to main point -from Mathematics And The Unexpected by Ivar Ekeland(1988) p5 'The Pulkovo library stores thousands of manuscript pages by Kepler, covered with computations. In the Astronomia Nova he rounds off fifteen folio pages of computations by complaining to the reader of having to do these calculations seventy times before getting the right answer.'

Also kind of linked, from CHINA MOUNTAIN ZHANG by Maureen F. McHugh her introductory quote from Albert Camus, The Plague-'A simple way to get to know about a town is to see how people work, how they love and how they die.' Book is written in this way. Also, p98 'The bees, buttons of tiger fur with glass wings'

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