Book Review: This Business of Exploring by Roy Chapman Andrews

Gun Watch ^ | 8 December, 2016 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

This Business of Exploring, by Roy Chapman Andrews,1935 Putnam's Sons, 288 pages.

I first read This Business of Exploring about fifty years ago, when I was attending high school in Hayward, Wisconsin.  The book is a classic and deserves far more attention than it now receives. Libraries are discarding older books for newer ones. My brother found the copy we both had read at a library book sale. He picked it up for a dollar or two. It is in an honored place in his collection.

The book covers Roy Chapman Andrews explorations in central Asia and outer Mongolia from 1921 to 1930. Andrews was working for the Museum of Natural History in New York.  He made world news with his discoveries, including the first dinosaur eggs.  The book gives a rich texture to not only the troubled times in China, but to the American experience in New York City. 

In the picture of Andrews on the frontispiece, he is standing next to a riding camel  with a long barreled Smith & Wesson revolver in an open top holster and gun belt, worn cross draw style.  On page 28 he mentions his .38 revolver. It probably was chambered in the popular .38 Special cartridge.

China was infested with bandits and warlords at the time. Chapman and his companions were routinely armed as they did their explorations.  From This Business of Exploring, page 21:

Charlie selected one fellow who was standing silhouetted against the sky, and I lined my sights on another just in front of him. I was shooting a Savage .250-3000 with soft nosed bullets, and Charlie had a Ross .280. As our rifles crashed both men crumpled.

The men had already attempted to kill Andrews and Charlie. Their car had bogged down in soft sand, so they could not drive away.

A Savage .250-3000 occupied my fathers gun rack just feet from where I was reading Andrew's account.

The book is more than a look into China's troubled past and glimpses of American society in the 1920's and 30's.  It is a finely crafted first hand account of high adventure.  Andrews is careful to quote Stefansson's dictum " Adventures are a sign of incompetence".  I first heard it as "An adventure is when the plan fails".  Yet in spite of Andrews obvious competence, he has plenty of adventures.

Guns are routinely mentioned. They were absolutely necessary for defense and, to a lesser degree, for hunting to supplement food supplies.

If you cannot find a copy of This Business of Exploring at your library, used ones are available.  Originals can command high prices.  I managed to find one in Germany.  On the legend of the map, you can see that it is stamped by the War Prisoner's Aid of the YMCA in Geneva, Switzerland.  It was sent there during World War II, as indicated by the U.S. Censor stamp in the upper right corner.

Map inside the covers of This Business of Exploring

Reprints are available at Amazon in paperback for $24.97, and on the Kindle platform for $9.97.

Many think that Roy Chapman Andrews was the inspiration for Indiana Jones. There are many similarities, but scholars believe that Andrews inspired iconic explorer characters in 1930's fiction and films, which then became the basis for the Indiana Jones character.

There are many dangerous places to travel in the world. In the 1920's and 30's, it was understood that prudent men traveled armed.

I highly recommend this book.  It is an easy read, exciting, entertaining, and educational.


©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

Gun Watch

[marktwain]

Roy Chapman Andrews grew up in Wisconsin, and became world famous.

[allendale]

As long as America spawns such men, the country will be alright.

[Covenantor]

I recall reading about him in old issues of the National Geographic in our Jr HS library. ( yeah, that pretty much ages me, but those were old back issues ;>)

Recall the dinosaur eggs discovered in the Gobi...real Edgar Rice Burrough reading. RCA become the embodiment of John Carter of Mars.

[Covenantor]

Lo, and behold...

[rellimpank]

-—I first became aware of the M99 Savage through pictures of Roy Chapman Andrews-—

[Bonneville]

If you’re interested, Project Gutenberg has free downloads of two other Roy Chapman Andrews books. They do books and magazines in the public domain, well worth a browse!
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Roy+Chapman+Andrews&go=Go

[Sicvee]

I would recommend the books of Harry Franck, who pretty much covered the known world before World War II, including an adventurous trip to “holy” Urga, the capital of Mongolia. He didn’t carry a gun. His books started with Zone Policeman 88( a year of service in the new Canal Zone) , A Vagabond Journey Around The World, Vagabonding Down The Andes and at least 40 more books. The editions by The Century Co. are replete with his photographs. Franck graduated from the University of Michigan in the 1890’s. He was as far from “politically correct” as you could imagine, and believed thoroughly in American superiority, but was fascinated by other peoples and cultures.

[Bonneville]

Thanks for the great recommendations! gutenberg.org has three of the Harry Franck books (including “Zone policeman 88”), I’ll start this week. I found “This Business of Exploring” on archive.org, so that’s in the hopper as well.
https://archive.org/details/thisbusinessofex028277mbp
Loved reading about Roy Chapman Andrew’s Mongolian paleontology expedition as a kid, didn’t think to look this stuff up until you posted...and I was just at the American Museum of Natural History in October. Thanks again!

P.S. Project Gutenberg Australia has a bunch of journals of Australian explorers if you’re interested, all the sites have some great first person military history as well.
http://gutenberg.net.au/