Ivan T.

Sanderson - Wikipedia

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Ivan T. Sanderson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ivan Terence Sanderson (January 30,

1911 February 19, 1973) was a
biologist and writer born in Edinburgh,
Scotland, who became a naturalized
citizen of the United States. Sanderson
is remembered for his nature writing
and his interest in cryptozoology and
paranormal subjects. He also wrote
ction under the name Terence
Roberts.

Ivan Terence Sanderson

Born

January 30, 1911

Edinburgh, Scotland

Died

February 19, 1973

(aged62)
New Jersey, United
States

Education

MA Botany, MA
Ethnology

Contents
1
2
3
4
5
6

Biography
Nature writing
Media appearances
Paranormal work
Personal
Works
6.1 Nature/travel
6.2 Paranormal subjects
6.3 Fiction under the name
Terence Roberts
7 References and sources
7.1 External

Cambridge University
Occupation

Biologist
Paranormal Writer

Organization British Museum,

Society for the
Investigation of the
Unexplained

Biography
Born in Scotland, Sanderson traveled widely in
his youth. His father, who manufactured whisky
professionally, was killed by a rhinoceros while
assisting a documentary lm crew in Kenya in
1925.
As a teenager, Sanderson attended Eton
College, and, at 17 years old, began a yearlong
trip around the world, focusing mostly on Asia.
Sanderson earned a B.A. in zoology, with
honours, from Cambridge University faculty of
Biology, where in the same faculty he later
earned M.A. degrees in botany and ethnology.

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Sanderson's essay "What

Pilots a UFO?" was coverfeatured on the November
1957 issue of Fantastic
Universe

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He became famous claiming to have seen a Kongamato, after being attacked by

a creature he described as "the Granddaddy of all bats". Sanderson conducted
a number of expeditions as a teenager and young man into tropical areas in the
1920s and 1930s, gaining fame for his animal collecting as well as his popular
writings on nature and travel.
During World War II, Sanderson worked for British Naval Intelligence, in
charge of counter-espionage against the Germans in the Caribbean, then for
British Security Coordination, nally nishing out the war as a press agent in
New York City. Afterwards, Sanderson made New York his home and became a
naturalized U.S. citizen. In the 1960s Sanderson lived in Knowlton Township in
northwestern New Jersey, before moving to Manhattan. He died in 1973.

Nature writing
Sanderson published: Animal Treasure, a report of an expedition to the jungles
of then-British West Africa; Caribbean Treasure, an account of an expedition to
Trinidad, Haiti, and Surinam, begun in late 1936 and ending in late 1938; and
Living Treasure, an account of an expedition to Jamaica, British Honduras (now
Belize) and the Yucatan.
Illustrated with Sanderson's drawings, they are accounts of his scientic
expeditions. Sanderson collected animals for museums and scientic
institutions, and included detailed studies of their behaviors and environments.
He also killed some for study.

Media appearances
In 1948 Sanderson began appearing on American radio and television,
speaking as a naturalist and displaying animals. In 1951 he appeared with
Patty Painter on the world's rst regularly scheduled colour TV series, The
World is Yours. Sanderson also provided the introduction for 12 episodes of the
1953 television wildlife series Osa Johnson's The Big Game Hunt a.k.a. The Big
Game Hunt featuring the lms of Martin and Osa Johnson.
Sanderson's television appearances with animals led to what he termed his
"animal business." Initially Sanderson borrowed or rented animals from zoos in
the New York metropolitan area for his TV appearances. In 1950 at a meeting
of the National Speleological Society, he met 20-year-old Edgar O. ("Eddie")
Schoenenberger, who by 1952 was his assistant (and ultimately partner) in his
animal business. Schoenenberger suggested that, instead of "renting" animals,
they should purchase and house them, and gain some additional income by
displaying them in a zoo. Sanderson purchased in November 1952 the
"Frederick Trench place" a 250-year-old farmhouse, outbuildings and 25 acres
(100,000m2) of land a short ways from the ultimate location of the zoo
between the communities of Columbia and Hainesburg. He refurbished and
expanded moving 200 of his rarest animals to a barn nearby so he could keep
close watch on them. Then, in the spring of 1954, he established "Ivan

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Sandersons Jungle Zoo" (and Laboratory), a permanent, summer, roadside

attraction near Manunka Chunk, White Township, Warren County, New Jersey.
Sanderson also developed and deployed winter traveling exhibits of rare and
unusual animals for sports shows and department stores. A re on the night of
Tuesday or early morning hours of Wednesday, February 2, 1955 destroyed his
collection of 45 rare animals kept in a barn at his New Jersey home. Ivan
Sanderson's Jungle Zoo was ooded out by the Delaware River during the
oods caused by Hurricane Diane on August 19, 1955.
Sanderson often traveled from his New Jersey home to his New York apartment
to visit friends and to appear on radio and television programs.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Sanderson was widely published in such journals
of popular adventure as True, Sports Aeld, and Argosy, as well as in the 1940s
in general-interest publications such as the Saturday Evening Post. In the
1950s, Sanderson was a frequent guest on John Nebel's paranormal-themed
radio program. He was a frequent guest on The Garry Moore Show, where he
brought live specimens on talk shows. His friend and fellow cryptozoologist
Loren Coleman says that Sanderson could be skeptical. In "Mysterious
America," Coleman writes that Sanderson discovered the 1909 "Jersey Devil"
incident was an elaborate real estate hoax.

Paranormal work
Sanderson was an early follower of Charles Fort. Later he became known for
writings on topics such as cryptozoology, a word Sanderson coined in the early
1940s, with special attention to the search for lake monsters, sea serpents,
Mokl-mbmb, giant penguins, Yeti, and Sasquatch.
Sanderson founded the Ivan T. Sanderson Foundation in August 1965 on his
New Jersey property, which became the Society for the Investigation of the
Unexplained (SITU) in 1967. SITU was a non-prot organization that
investigated strange phenomena ignored by mainstream science.

Personal
Sanderson was married twice. His wife Alma accompanied him in the travels
discussed in Caribbean Treasure and Living Treasure.
He died of brain cancer in New Jersey, which had become his adopted home.

Works
Nature/travel
Green silence: Travels through the jungles of the Orient, D. McKay Co.,
1974, ISBN 0-679-50487-7.
Animal Treasure, The Viking Press, September 1937, hardback; Pyramid
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Books, July 1966, paperback.

Ivan Sanderson's Book of Great Jungles, Julian Messner, 1965, hardback.
Caribbean Treasure, The Viking Press, November 1939, hardback, ISBN
0-670-20479-X; Pyramid Books, November 1965, paperback, second
printing July 1966.
Living Treasure, The Viking Press, April 1941, hardback, second printing
April 1945; Pyramid Books, September 1965, paperback.
The Dynasty of Abu a History and Natural History of the elephants and
Their Relatives Past and Present, Alfred A. Knopf, 1962, hardback.
The Continent We Live On, Random House, 1961.
Living mammals of the world in color: A treasury of real-life, natural-color
photographs and complete up-to-date, accurate description of 189
mammals, Hanover House, 1958.
Follow the Whale, Little Brown, 1956, hardback.
How to Know the American Mammals, Little, Brown and Company, 1951,
hardback.

Paranormal subjects
Things and More Things (essays), combined and reprinted by Adventures
Unlimited Press, 2007, paperback, ISBN 1-931882-78-9
Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life: The Story Of Sub-Humans
On Five Continents From The Early Ice Age Until Today, Adventures
Unlimited Press, 2006, paperback, ISBN 1-931882-58-4.
Invisible Residents: The Reality of Underwater UFOs, with David Hatcher
Childress, Adventures Unlimited Press, 2005, paperback, ISBN
1-931882-20-7.
Investigating the Unexplained (essays) Prentice Hall, 1972, hardback,
ISBN 0-13-502229-0.
More Things (essays), Pyramid Books, 1969, paperback.
Uninvited Visitors: A Biologist Looks At UFOs, Cowles Education
Corporation, 1967, hardback.
Things (essays), Pyramid Books, 1967, paperback.

Fiction under the name Terence Roberts

Mystery Schooner, Viking Press, 1944, hard cover.
Report on the Status Quo, Merlin Press, 1955, hard cover.
Black Allies (short story) published in The Saint Magazine: March [Mar]
1967

References and sources

Clark, Jerome, Unexplained! 347 Strange Sightings, Incredible
Occurrences, and Puzzling Physical Phenomena; Detroit, Visible Ink Press;
1993, ISBN 0-8103-9436-7
Hall, Mark A., "The World of Ivan Sanderson," in Wonders 8 (3): 6785 (in
annual compilation), Sept. 2003
Hall, Mark A., "The Works of Ivan Terence Sanderson (19111973)," in

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Wonders 8 (3): 8690 (in annual compilation), Sept. 2003

Story, Ronald, "Sanderson, Ivan T[erence]" pages 315-317 in The
Encyclopedia of UFOs, Ronald Story, editor; Garden City: Doubleday &
Company, Inc, 1980, ISBN 0-385-13677-3

External
Abominable Snowmen, full text at sacred-texts.com (http://www.sacredtexts.com/lcr/abs/index.htm)
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org
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Categories: 1911 births 1973 deaths American fortean writers
Scottish naturalists Cryptozoologists People from Edinburgh
Deaths from brain tumor Deaths from cancer in New Jersey
Scottish nature writers 20th-century American writers
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