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Book Summary and Reviews of Mr Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders by Lawrence Weschler

Mr Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders by Lawrence Weschler

Mr Wilson's Cabinet of Wonders

Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology

by Lawrence Weschler

  • Critics' Consensus:
  • Published:
  • Oct 1995, 163 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Writing with great style and humor, Weschler guides the readers through the Museum of Jurassic Technology and through the mind of its curator, David Wilson, a man of unusual imagination who mounts exhibits such as spore-inhaling ants, bats deploying ultraviolet frequencies, peach-pit carvings, and other exhibits that seem the manifest definition of bizarre. Illustrations.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"The impulse to inventory oddities, he observes, dates back to Europeans' wonderment at the New World. Wilson, he concludes, has tapped 'into the premodern wellsprings of the postmodern temper.' Slight, but memorable." - Publishers Weekly.

"Weschler's journalistic style enhances this monograph's odd subject, and this slim volume will no doubt be enjoyed by the same fringe element that is making Wilson a cult hero in the museum world." - Library Journal.

"[A]t turns, a tour of the museum, a profile of its founder and curator, David Wilson, and a meditation on the role of imagination and authority in all museums, in science and in life. Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder is an exquisite piece of 'magic realist nonfiction' that will prove utterly captivating." - Amazon.

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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.

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Expanded from an article for Harper's.

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