From Hans Zinsser and Tom Barbour to Gretchen Finletter and Agnes 
Keith, we have issued under the Atlantic Monthly Press the autobio¬ 
graphical writings of some very exceptional people. None has ranged 
more widely over the face of the earth and the interests of man than these 
delightful reminiscences of the Director of the National Zoo. 
WILLIAM M. MANN is a beloved permanent figure in Washington, D. C. 
His friends cover the whole world, are to be found in all occupations. A 
leader among natural scientists, he is also one of the greatest circus fans 
in the United States, technical adviser to Ringling Brothers, as well as 
adviser to the National Geographic Society. The State Department relies 
on him constantly to take care of hard-to-entertain guests. 
WHERE DID HE COME FROM? Mann is the son of a Helena, Montana, 
harness maker who was also an amateur taxidermist and collector. 
William Mann started his first collection at the age of four and created 
an aquarium in placer pans that just fitted the holes of an abandoned out¬ 
house. All through a year of boarding school he kept a pair of suckers 
in his room, and before he was twelve he was trading bugs with the 
leading entomologists of the East. Not long after he reached that ripe 
age he applied for and received a job as animal man in the Ringling 
Circus, but Charles Ringling persuaded him to give it up and get an 
education. 
WHERE DID HE GO? Eventually he went to Washington State Col¬ 
lege and Stanford University, where he became acquainted with some of 
the leading naturalists of the time. One of them hired him to collect 
beetles in Arizona, and urged him to go to Harvard. After expeditions to 
South America, Asia Minor, Haiti and the Pacific Islands he received his 
doctorate and joined the Department of Agriculture as research ento¬ 
mologist. . . . But the education of a naturalist is only the framework for 
a life story as rich and savory as any you or your customers have read in 
many a day. 
An Atlantic Monthly Press Book 
5% x 7%. Cloth. 5 maps; 8 pages of photographs. About 360 pages. $3.50 
November 9 
— 14 — 
i-iRR ww 
, MONDAY, OCTOBER 18, 
Book Notes 
Beetles and Circuses 
William M. Mann, whose en- 
[ thusiasm for circuses almost equals 
. tha t for animals, writes the story 
of his life in “Ant 
, which will appear M^November 
under Little, Brown^TwpiajaiMw*^ 1 
3 collector of beetles' and lizards 
5 sin ce the age of four, Mr. Mann 
1 got a job with the Ringling 
? Brothers circus at twelve, and held 
r it until, at the urging of Charles 
i Ringling, he decided an education 
, might be valuable. After many 
1 years of traveling about the globe, 
> he became director of the National 
; zoo. His story-telling ability is 
attested by the fact that the State 
Department ofen relies on him to 
entertain its difficult guests. 
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Books Published Today 
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A,nt Hill Odyssey, by William M. 
Mann (Atlantic; Little, Brown. 
$3.50). Reminiscences by the 
Director of the National Zoo in 
Washington, 
Deqa.s Dance Drawing, by Paul 
Valery (Lear: Crown, $5). A 
study of the French painter, il¬ 
lustrated with four hand-painted 
plates. 
E4STWICK, U.S.A., by Howard 
Hush (Dutton, $3). Experiences 
as a social worker. 
European Ideologies: A Survey of 
Twentieth Century Political 
Ideas, by Feliks Gross, with an 
introduction by Robert M. Mac- 
Iver (Philosophical Library, 
$ 12 ). 
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