What the First Dolphin Told the Second Dolphin

About the Book

Dolphins is a jaundiced-eye view of government research, administrators in general, top-secret projects, "intellectuals," and polite scientific society, as told in the first person by the author in the guise of an historian who has been hired to write a history of the mythical Bloch Oceanographic Institution, where a young man named Ralph Christ has learned to communicate with dolphins. Ralph, however, is more interested in proving that the dolphins have actually come from another planet. What he learns ultimately makes him a rich manand gives him the leverage to destroy his former boss at Bloch, an MD and a thoroughly detestable man.

The book is reminiscent of the writings of Gogol, with the same kinds of insights and commentary on human foibles and human nature.

About the Author

Dr. Ross was born in New York City in 1941 and attended grade and junior high school there. When his family moved to Huntington, LI, in 1953, he went to Toaz high school there, then on to Cornell University, from which he obtained a B.S. degree in mathematics, having switched from being a physics major. He went on to obtain an MS degree in history from Columbia and then a PhD, also in history, from Columbia. He later obtained a master's degree in library science from a college in NYC. Dr. Ross worked as an editor for MIT press in Cambridge, MA, until forced into retirement by multiple sclerosis. He moved from Somerville, MA, to Odessa, TX, where he wrote his book, Dolphins, which reflects his scientific bent, his historian's eye for detail, and his wry sense of humor.

Unable to fend for himself any longer because of the advancing MS, he took his own life in 1991 on his 50th birthday. The manuscript for the book, unfortunately the only one he is known to have written, was discovered by his brother, John, after his death.