Amazon.com description: Product Description: Edward Drinker Cope (1840-1897), the grandson of wealthy Phila. merchant, grew up to be a keenly intellectual, energetic, and argumentative naturalist. He was among the last of the great school of late 19th century naturalists who studied almost everything, excelling in the study of reptiles, amphibians, and fish, fossil and modern alike. Cope soared to international prominence among natural scientists. Here, Davidson has critically looked into Cope the man more than any other previous biographer. Cope was acclaimed by international scholarly soc. for his scientific work, yet lost his fortune in bad mining ventures & remained a complex, fierce-minded man. Davidson shows him to have been a very human, personable, self-assured, and brilliant man. Illus.