I was gifted a copy of Martha Sandweiss' biography of King, Passing Strange a few years ago. This is the result.
Clarence King was an interesting dude. Because the Adamses must get into everything, it so happens that he was a close friend of Henry Adams. He was a member of Adams' "club" of five friends, the Five of Hearts. That didn't stop Adams from dunking on his book, but that is because Adams felt that King's scientific work was more interesting. King saw himself as literary, and loved to spin a good yarn.
He ran in high circles of New York society, and was long considered quite an eligible bachelor. But he had a secret double-life. Under the name "James Todd" he married and had a family with one Ada Copeland. He only told Ada the truth from a deathbed, sent from 2000 miles away. King died of tuberculosis at the age of 59.
Oh, and somewhere along the way he founded the USGS.
Adamses and Geology. This comic is basically peak me.
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