For Want of Wings

A former food and wine writer and editor, Jill Hunting is the author of Finding Pete: Rediscovering the Brother I Lost in Vietnam. She lives in Pasadena, California.

"For Want of Wings is complex, with a refreshingly varied path to narrative history. This book is a fascinating glimpse into the science of paleontology. ... For Want of Wings is complex, with a refreshingly varied path to narrative history."--Roundup Magazine "Part biography, part memoir, this book leaves the reader delighted to have gained a greater knowledge about paleontology, the settlement of Kansas, and the author's interesting ancestors. The author's great-great-grandfather, General William Huntington Russell, was an abolitionist and a founding member of Yale's Skull and Bones Society. As we learn in the book, General Russell was acquainted with John Brown and worked to bring Kansas into the Union as a Free State. ... [Hunting] recounts that her great-grandfather, Dr. Thomas Russell, did not become famous for his important discovery of a notable Kansas fossil or for his medical practice, but was described as a 'man to tie to.' Readers can find that same steadfastness and intelligence in Jill Hunting and her book, FOR WANT OF WINGS."-- Jennifer Kassebaum, High Plains Public Radio Readers Book Club "Jill Hunting's For Want of Wings is the enrapturing, wide-ranging, and thoughtful account of her great-grandfather's discovery of a rare dinosaur fossil in 1872. ... Like digging through the 'sepulcher of chalk in a Kansas fossil bed, ' the book begins with a few scant documents: rare historical photographs, clippings from an alumni magazine, and family hearsay. It uses these to illuminate [Tom] Russell's 'inconspicuous life.' The exploration then stretches from the dusty archives of the [Yale] Peabody Museum and journals of similar expeditions, to accounts of the Russell family's ties to early abolitionists, to colorful descriptions of life on the Kansas frontier and the region's natural history. ... For Want of Wings is a riveting and entertaining work of scientific history that also considers the value of connecting with one's family story."--Foreword Reviews "In this engrossing memoir, Jill Hunting has woven her own family's past into the weft and the warp of American history. This rich tapestry truly contains multitudes, ranging from the founding of Skull and Bones at Yale University to the discovery of toothed birds in western Kansas, from antebellum debates over the abolition of slavery to the forced relocation of indigenous tribes on the Great Plains. It is emotionally complex and beautifully told, an absolute pleasure to read."--Lukas Rieppel, Associate Professor of History, Brown University and author of Assembling the Dinosaur: Fossil Hunters, Tycoons, and the Making of a Spectacle "Jill Hunting has given us the story of a beautiful, intimate, and unforgettable journey that shows how ineffably the past is woven into the present, how our ancestors' complicated lives shape our own, and what is gained when we come face to face with our history."--Lynn Novick, documentary filmmaker and collaborator, with Ken Burns, on Hemingway, The Vietnam War, Baseball, and The Civil War "Jill Hunting has woven together an unforgettable tapestry of family history, fossil hunting, and high adventures in the American West. This finely honed and deeply original book reminds us that the past and the present aren't as far apart as they sometimes seem to be, and the lives of Hunting's Yale-centric ancestors have surprising resonances today. A fascinating read for both dinophiles and history lovers."--Julia Flynn Siler, New York Times best-selling author of The White Devil's Daughter, Lost Kingdom, and The House of Mondavi "Jill Hunting is a great storyteller and this is a truly great story. As she notes, Hesperornis is perhaps the least famous of the most important fossils ever discovered. Her book should change that. As Darwin emphasized, an intermediate form like Hesperornis helps us understand how evolution works in ways that are fundamental to understanding both the past and future of our planet."--David K. Skelly, Frank R. Oastler Professor of Ecology, Yale University School of the Environment and Director, Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History "Jill Hunting's For Want of Wings follows a delightfully discursive and personal path across important American history, tracking the footsteps of ancestors whose adventures in scientific discovery and political change resonate to this day. I avidly followed, feeling as enriched as did Jill and her daughter, May, out on the Great Plains and the Rockies. This is a warm and touching story showing the simultaneity of past and present--just my kind of book."--David Haward Bain, author of Empire Express and The Old Iron Road "Partly a rousing adventure in pursuit of scientific discovery, partly a series of intimate ruminations on self and history, For Want of Wings charms the reader to explore unexpected byways of knowledge as it crisscrosses the United States through time and space."--Nancy F. Cott, Jonathan Trumbull Research Professor of American History at Harvard University and author of Fighting Words: The Bold American Journalists Who Brought the World Home between the Wars