H.H. Nininger’s classic autobiography, Find a Falling Star, released in 1972 and out of print for decades, has been revised and republished! Find a Falling Star was a significantly shorter version of the autobiography that Nininger had always hoped to publish. This new version, In Search of Falling Stars, H. H. Nininger’s Classic “Find a Falling Star” Revisited & Expanded, has been compiled from multiple original manuscripts, handwritten comments, and boxes of notes and correspondence. It is H.H. Nininger’s life story as he wished it to be told.
About the Book
In the early 20th century, the science of meteorites was at a low ebb. Then, in 1923, Harvey H. Nininger, a trained biologist, witnessed a great fireball that plunged him headlong into an exciting new field: meteoritics. In this remarkable book, Nininger, often called “the father of modern meteoritics,” recounts in his own words his long love affair with “falling stars,” those “stones from the sky” that rain down upon Earth from outer space in great, but little-known, profusion.
This newly expanded autobiography, compiled from his original manuscripts and edited by his grandson, Jim Banks, tells Nininger’s complete life story as he always wished it to be told, beginning with his upbringing in backwoods farming communities where education was discouraged and following his exploits through his eventual recognition as a pioneer and expert in an increasingly important field. Told in detail with straightforward ease, this fascinating tale illustrates the single-minded persistence of a classic adventurer and scientist who, in the face of an almost impossible dream, refused to be diverted by seemingly overwhelming obstacles.
About the Author
Born in 1887 and raised amid the farm fields and primitive country schools of rural Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma, Harvey Nininger “graduated” from common school—the equivalent of passing the eighth grade—at age 19. He found a way to attend the state Normal School (part high school, part college), and eventually made his way to McPherson College in Kansas, graduating with honors and a teaching position waiting for him in California. After returning to McPherson College to teach biology, he witnessed a fireball that would change his life. Nininger spent the rest of his life tracking down and studying meteorites and, in the process, revolutionized a science.