One of the finest books ever written about meteorites…a massive inspiration in my life as a meteorite hunter and science writer.
Geoffrey Notkin, Co-Host of Discovery’s “Meteorite Men”
The story of Harvey Nininger’s life is the real treasure here. The first part of the book follows his life chronologically, from his poor yet formative beginnings in Kansas to his remarkable academic career and adventures. The second part of the book is subject oriented, delving into topics like Meteor Crater, Nininger’s museum, his collection of meteorites, locating meteor falls, the nature of dust clouds left by meteors screaming through the atmosphere, among the many meteoritic subjects that fascinated Nininger.
Whether you’re into meteorites or not, the story of this remarkable man is worth your time. Nininger himself was disappointed in his original published autobiography “Find a Falling Star” because of the material left out. Editor Banks writes that he hopes the new book is the autobiography Nininger would have wanted. It’s clear he succeeded.
John Vester, National Space Society
Nininger’s story is deeply moving, showing how he and his family, his wife Addie and their three children, struggled to survive on a shoestring budget while he “did what had to be done.” In Search of Falling Stars is a classic textbook on the personal cost of thinking outside the box. As a pioneer in a field with no existing formal education, Nininger claimed to be an amateur his whole life. Not unexpectedly, his fiercest opponents were professional geologists in academia. Long before most others, Nininger believed in future space exploration and in the importance of learning from the few extraterrestrial samples within reach, namely meteorites.
Jon Larsen, Project Stardust
It was Harvey Harlow Nininger, a self-taught and self-funded meteoriticist from Kansas, who revived scientific interest in meteorites. Nininger’s passion for meteorites, and the unique labor of recovering them, was ignited on November 9, 1923. Nininger taught biology and geology at McPherson College in Kansas at the time, and on that night, he and a fellow professor were walking home from a lecture when a fireball streaked across the sky above them. Nininger’s unique tenacity on the subject would result in his amassing the world’s largest collection of meteorites at that time. A meteorite hunter himself, Nininger was accounting for half of all the meteorite discoveries back then, according to Fletcher Watson of Harvard University.
Melissa Silva, Ad Astra