A compendium of the biographical literature of deceased entomologists

Biological librarians are often surprised at the interest that latter-day biologists show in the lives - as distinct from the works - of earlier naturalists, and at the frequency with which the librarian is besought to provide information of a biographical rather than a bibliographical kind. Among entomologists the urge to discover something about their predecessors’ lives seems more demanding than among other groups of biologists, perhaps because entomology remains to this day a biological sphere in which the amateur plays a significant part : indeed, from over twenty years’ experience of entomological librarianship I have formed the impression that the lepidopterists, in particular, have an almost insatiable appetite for biographical data on their forerunners! The biographical enquiries that entomologists make of their librarians are sometimes motivated by little more than academic curiosity about the life behind some familiar entomological ‘name’, but are mostly stimulated by some more significant purpose. Knowledge of an entomologist’s life - when, where and with whom he worked, for instance - can often shed light on a particular entomological problem. Here one may instance the field of taxonomy, in which the location of a little known entomologist’s collection (perhaps with included type-specimens) might be aided by a knowledge of where he worked at different times of his life. But it is one thing to seek information on the lives of past entomologists and another to find it. For the relatively few ‘big names’ in entomology - Fabricius, say, or Cuvier - fullscale biographies exist, but the generality of entomologists were born to blush unknown and for these lesser lights it is necessary to unearth the mere snippets of information (such as an obituary notice or two) that is all that is bequeathed to us - and these, as often as not, buried in obscure periodicals or even in local newspapers. In short, a compendium is needed of all the known biographical literature on the entomologists of the past, for without it the entomological librarian is in almost as much difficulty in discovering information as the inquirer himself. It is to fulfil this need, in so far as this is practicable, that I have prepared this compendium. Its aim is to provide the entomologist with a handy means of discovering for himself the whereabouts of any published information that exists on the lives of entomologists now dead. Nevertheless the work is intended to be more than a mere necrology and I have included references to the bibliographies of past entomologists as well as to biographical information (except where there are already self-contained bibliographies for the early entomologists in Hagen’s Bibliotheca Entomologica, Horn and Schenkling's Index Litteraturae Entomologicae and Derkson & Scheidings’ Index Litteraturae Entomologicae Series II). My compendium is not the first of its kind, and I have leant heavily on the pioneer work of the late Mathilde Carpenter entitled Bibliography of Biographies of Entomologists and published (with a later supplement) in the American Midland Naturalist (1945, Vol. 33, pp.l- 116 & Vol. 50, pp.257-348). For a quarter of a century or more this work has been an invaluable reference source, and it is in recognition of Miss Carpenter’s prodigious efforts as the first comprehensive synthesizer of the vast and scattered literature of entomological biography that I dedicate my own work to her memory. The present work contains biographical references to deceased entomologists published up to the end of 1975. It is, therefore, much more comprehensive that Carpenter’s bibliography, although it is not essentially different in content. The compendium contains the names of some 7,500 entomologists as compared to approximately 4,700 entomologists listed by Carpenter; this 60 per cent increase in the number of entries in such a relatively short time doubtless reflects the professional boom that entomology has undergone this century. Apart from extra names, I have included many additions and corrections to the references given by Carpenter, as this was found necessary after checking them to source. A few words should be said about the meaning I attach to the word entomologist for the purpose of this compilation. It has seemed to me more useful to be embracive rather than restrictive. In fact one cannot be pedantic about defining entomology, as too tight a definition can easily exclude many of the early naturalists for whom the insects were a secondary or incidental interest but whose works were seminal to the science. Taking the broad view, I have thought of an entomologist as anyone who has published upon the insects - although even this is not a definition that I have rigidly applied, as (for example) many of the early travellers have been included if their collections were significant to entomology. Together the seven-and-a-half thousand names that have found a place reflect every shade of contribution to entomology from 7BC to today, and include every kind of entomologist; dedicated or dilettante, amateur or professional, academic or applied, famous or (if I dare say it) infamous. A fascinating human side to the history of entomology lies concealed in the biographical literature on all these men and women. It is almost axiomatic that some errors and omissions will be discovered in the compendium from time to time, and I take this opportunity of saying that I shall be most grateful to anyone who brings any mistake or oversight - however minor - to my attention. I shall be specially glad to receive any information that helps to fill the gaps in the forenames and dates that are only too conspicuous in the text