'THE SUNDAY STAR, Washington, D. C. C_3 
__ SUNDAY, OCTOBER 31, 1948. * 
Reading and Writing 
Dr. Mann Pauses in His Zoological 
Tracks to Write an Autobiography 
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His job, life and hobby are animals. 
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By Mary McGrory 
Probably the most contented civil 
servant in Washington is Dr.- Wil¬ 
liam M. Mann, director of the Na¬ 
tional Zoological Park, whose job, 
life and hobby 'are animals. The 
gray-haired monitor of 3.000 speci¬ 
mens of some of the most gazed-at 
wild life in captivity lives within 
a lion's roar of his office, just 
across the street at 2801 Adams 
Mill road N.W., a happy circum¬ 
stance which allows, him “to sleep 
20 minutes later than any Govern¬ 
ment employe.” t 
Even congressional appropriations 
hearings—nightmares for most Gov¬ 
ernment department heads—are 
pleasant for the genial presid¬ 
ing genius of the Zoo. When budget 
time comes around he goes up on 
the Bill and all is cordiality and 
curiosity about his charges from 
Congressmen who have been his de¬ 
lighted guests. In such an at¬ 
mosphere, purse strings generally 
loosen. 
An Amazing Office. 
Dr. Mann’s office, strikingly dif¬ 
ferent from the usual Government 
cubicle, looks more like the much- 
visited office of a country doctor or 
lawyer. It’s a rather dimlv lit room 
on the second floor of the historic 
administration building of the Zoo, 
and there’s no crushing receptionist 
to discourage the steady stream of 
visitors, high and low, who seek out 
the world-famous naturalist. 
One wall from floor to ceiling is 
covered with books and the rest of 
the space is filled with a conglom¬ 
eration of books, magazines and 
stuffed specimens arranged in 
scientific disarray, where the doctor 
can put his hands on them easily. 
On the mantle are several gourds he 
brought back from the tropics and 
a statue of a rain god. Over it is 
a portrait of a particularly resent¬ 
ful looking lion. Scattered around 
are revolving bookshelves, filing cab¬ 
inets and tables piled high with 
various scientific volumes and Na¬ 
tional Geographic magazines. Over 
in the corner is Dr. Mann’s rather- 
battered rolltop desk. Prominently 
placed on it is a picture of his 
published on November 9. Curious¬ 
ly enough it won’t be about the Zoo. 
He’ll have to write two more to 
cover that. This one will take him 
up to his first Government job with 
the Bureau of Entymology. It 
describes his boyhood in Helena, 
Mont., where he was born in 1886; 
his education at Staunton Military 
Academy (he first worked at the 
Zoo during an enforced vacation 
caused by a fire there), the State 
College of Washington, Stanford 
and Harvard. It will also clear up 
the apocryphal story that he once 
worked for the circus. He loves 
them and has traveled with them, 
but only as a guest. He still has 
the letter that Charles Ringling 
sent in response to his application 
for a job: “Would advise a boy your 
age to choose some other lihe of 
occupation as more desirable in 
every respect.” ; - 
Never Grew Up. 
During his youth he loved animals 
and boilected specimens. “My boy¬ 
hood was like any other boy’s,” says 
Dr. Mann, “except I never out¬ 
grew it.” 
In his three years’ labor on the 
book he had the help and advice 
of his wife, a former woman’s mag¬ 
azine editor who has three books on 
animals to her credit. 
She has accompanied him on 
every one of his animal hunting ex¬ 
peditions, which have been frequent 
and far-flung, since their marriage. 
She has also reared the wild young 
things rejected by their mothers, 
which her husband has brought 
home to her. They have included 
baby lions, tigers and a warthog. 
This will not be Dr. Mann’s first 
literary venture. A contributor to 
the Library of Congress quarterly 
book list and to scientific magazines, 
he is the author of “Wild Animals 
In and Out of the Zoo,” which he 
says has three good things about it: 
It has a handsome binding, is too 
expensive for his scientific friends to 
buy and enabled me to take my wife 
on a hunting expedition. 
For diversion he likes Gilbert and 
Sullivan songs, but says his voice is 
so bad he never sings them, except 
1 ? uar T Mann - in the jungle, and even^'then 'its£ 
a sturdy brass spittoon under the 
desk and an ancient hatrack in 
another corner. 
As informal and unpretentious 
as his surroundings, Dr. Mann, who 
s is one of Washington’s most eagerly 
- lionized personalities, sought after 
by Senators and circus folks, scien- 
* lists > actors, reporters and children, 
a is keen but kindly, with rumpled 
; |£i'ay hair and quizzical brown eyes 
* sparkling, behind rimless glasses. 
3 He chain smokes, lighting one 
■ cigarette from another, alternat- 
5 in S' preferred brand with men- 
’ tholated ones. 
• After 23 years on the job he re- 
5 tains his first enthusiasm for his 
• 175-acre woodland domain and its 
inhabitants. Every morning he 
1 makes the rounds of the animal 
1;houses. How long does that take? 
“I won’t tell you,” he said cheer - 
1 fully. “I don’t want the Govern- 
ijment to know how much time I 
^! spend visiting the Zoo.” One day a 
•; lion, which always favored him with 
’ j the unseeing stare of “the dowager 
, | for the gutter-bred” “spoke” to him 
■ —actually grunted, he reports. He 
| was so edified he rushed right across 
3 1 the street to tell Mrs. Mann about it. 
terrible I annoy myself.’ 
* * * * 
Visitors and a report from 
abroad: Sol Bloom, veteran repre¬ 
sentative from New York, inter¬ 
rupted his brisk campaign for re- 
election long enough to do a little 
campaigning in behalf of hi s re¬ 
cently published autobiography. 
Natty and affable as ever, he auto¬ 
graphed books in a downtown book 
store,' priding himself on his dash¬ 
ing penmanship and a completely 
different inscription for every cus¬ 
tomer. . , . Stanley Walker, one of 
the great city editors of all time, 
who wrote a book about the subject 
that is just about classic, passed 
through the Capital over the week 
end, en route to his ranch in Lam- 
pasos, Tex. He said over the tele¬ 
phone he has two long-term book 
projects in the works: One a study 
of Texas, which will take four or 
five years; another of an oil com¬ 
pany, which will take three.... An 
underground report from England 
advises that Kay Summersby’g 
chatty wartime memoirs, “Eisen¬ 
hower Was My Boss,” is being 
“virtually burned” over there for its 
criticism of the beloved “Monty/ 
’I , Dl - M f nn is feeling particularly;. . . Meanwhile, Miss Summersby’s 
11chipper these days because he has,ex-boss, President Eisenhower of 
• | jus t finished the first volume of his j Columbia, that is, will have his 
• | autobiography, which is entitled book, “Crusade^ in Europe,” pub- 
’j Ant-Hill Odyssey,” and will be dished on November 22. 
.-tiro- 
fr- 
T GOT an exciting letter about Dr. Wil- 
liam Mann’s new book. The book 
hasn t come out as yet, but I hope he tells 
m it most of the things he’s told me over 
the years. About how his angel wife, Lucy, 
kept the baby tiger when it was ailing and 
hundreds of other tales. 
He told me once about being in the 
jungle looking for “the missing link.’* 
Someone had seen a “wild man” and an 
expedition was formed to go looking for 
him. . 
One night just at dusk, as the party 
was sitting around the campfire, sure 
enough there skulked a huge man, nude, 
with white skin, long, shaggy hair, and 
wild as any wild animal. But he seemed 
very curious. Dr. Mann was trying to 
think of a way to trap him. While he was 
thinking, a French member of the expedi¬ 
tion got so excited that he walked toward 
the wild creature waving a big white hand¬ 
kerchief to prove he was friendly. 
Whatever the thing was, he didn’t 
understand French truce terms, and tearing 
off into the jungle, his rear end was the 
last Dr. Mann ever saw of the “half man. 
half ape.” 
i • s -was «v vtc a« 
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Ant Hill Odyssey 
Delightful Reminiscences of 
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Washington’s “Doc” Wm. M. Mann 
Director of the National Zoo 
Published today is a vividly humorous ac¬ 
count of the widely traveled Director of the 
National Zoo. A diverting tale of the snakes^ 
circuses, head-hunters, and collectors who 
have contributed to Dr. Mann's 'liberal' edu- 
.50 cation in natural sciences. 
WM. BALLANTYNE & SONS 
1421 F Street Northwest 
Established 1852 
REpublie 3646 
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