Millionaires Toady Him

Tall, spare, with wiry hands and, one might almost say, wiry features, William Beebe gives an impression of great nervous vitality and never ceasing vigor. He is direct, quick-thinking, and if his manner appears at times to be fussy, it is doubtless only the manifestation of an excess of energy, and of a consciousness, which he cannot well escape, that he is a good organizer--a thing any man must be to create expeditions for exploration purposes, and not only to create them but to carry them through.

Beebe is, primarily, the scientist. But only one chapter of Galapagos: World's End* is enough to prove him incurably romantic. Beebe is one of those few fortunate men who are doing, as I imagine it, exactly as they please. If he wishes to go to the end of the world, he finds someone to take him there--and he usually discovers exactly what he started out to find. .

Born in Brooklyn, William Beebe was educated at Columbia University. He has for many years been Honorary Curator of Ornithology of the New York Zooelogical Society. As you doubtless know, he is Director of the British Guiana Zoological Station, and here he spends a part of each year, collecting specimens, examining them, preparing his elaborate scientific data. But he has not confined his activities to the jungle; he has also traveled extensively in Asia, South America, Mexico.

Just as Beebe, while he is slight and unimpressive, succeeds in creating about himself an atmosphere of romance, so he invests the smallest insects with qualities of rare charm. He owes much to Fabre and to W. H. Hudson; but his rhythmical and beautiful style is distinctive. He is, undoubtedly, in addition to being a recognized scientist of the first order, one of the best essayists we have today in America.

His Jungle Peace is in some respects his best book--a collection of essays most of which appeared originally in The Atlantic Monthly; but Edge of the Jungle was not far behind in beauty and appeal. Galapagos is his most elaborate published book, with the exception of the pheasant monograph.

Beebe has been fortunate in his coworkers. He has the sort of personality that attracts men and women of talent. Just how many American millionaires each year offer him transportation to far ends of the earth so that they may be taken along on his delightful pilgrimages, is a matter for speculation. At any rate, the Galapagos trip was made under the auspices of Mr. Harrison Williams and his yacht Notna.

J. F.

*For a description of this book see Page 20.