In Search of Falling Stars is H. H. Nininger’s firsthand account of an extraordinary life devoted to meteorites. Traveling across the country, often following little more than reports of a fireball or stories of an unusual stone, Nininger searched farms, fields, small towns, and deserts for meteorites that others had overlooked.
This expanded autobiography draws on Nininger’s original manuscripts and other material to present his story more fully than the version published in 1972 as Find a Falling Star. It is a story of scientific curiosity, adventure, persistence, and one man’s determination to pursue an unconventional path.
Why a New Edition?
Find a Falling Star did not contain the complete story Nininger originally intended to tell.
After years of writing, revision, and editing, Nininger’s autobiography was substantially shortened as publication approached. More than half of the original manuscript was cut. Entire portions of his story disappeared, including much of his upbringing in rural Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri; the development of his interest in science; and some of the remarkable early adventures through which he tried to turn his growing fascination with meteorites into a livelihood.
The cuts also removed important parts of the narrative that showed how Nininger became the person—and ultimately the scientist—he was to become.
More than fifty years later, those missing parts of his story have been restored.
What Has Been Restored
In Search of Falling Stars contains the material published in Find a Falling Star, with minor editing and revisions, while restoring substantial material from Nininger’s original manuscripts.
Four completely new chapters restore much of his backstory and early adventures, including some of his first attempts to make a career out of collecting and studying meteorites. Other material omitted from the original book has also been restored, and numerous new and seldom-seen photographs help bring the story to life.
The result is a fuller account of Nininger’s journey—from his upbringing in isolated farming communities to his eventual recognition as a pioneer in the study of meteorites.
A Family Project
The new edition was assembled and edited by Nininger’s grandson, Jim Banks. Another grandson, Gary Huss, a meteoriticist and Research Professor and Director of the W. M. Keck Cosmochemistry Laboratory at the University of Hawaiʻi, contributed the Foreword. Nininger’s other grandchildren have also supported the project.
In Search of Falling Stars restores H. H. Nininger’s story in a form much closer to the one he originally intended to tell.