Rubber Dinosaurs and Wooden Elephants: Essays on Literature, Film, and History is a 1996 essay collection by L. Sprague de Camp

L. Sprague de Camp

Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction and fantasy books, non-fiction and biography. In a writing career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and notable works of non-fiction, including biographies of other important fantasy authors...

, published in hardcover by Borgo Press

Borgo Press

The Borgo Press was a small publishing company founded by Robert Reginald in 1975 funded by the royalties gained from his first major reference work.The same year Borgo Press was founded, Robert Reginald met Mary Wickizer Rogers, a student at Cal State...

 as no. 26 in the series I.O. Evans Studies in the Philosophy & Criticism of Literature. The title essay "Rubber Dinosaurs and Wooden Elephants" (retitled in this collection) was originally published in the magazine Analog Science Fiction and Fact

Analog Science Fiction and Fact

Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...

, in the issue for mid-December 1987.

The book consists of thirteen pieces on various subjects, including writers H. P. Lovecraft

H. P. Lovecraft

Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....

 (two essays), Robert E. Howard

Robert E. Howard

Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....

 (also two essays), and Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burroughs

Edgar Rice Burroughs was an American author, best known for his creation of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres.-Biography:...

, actor Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., silent movies

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

, pseudohistory

Pseudohistory

Pseudohistory is a pejorative term applied to a type of historical revisionism, often involving sensational claims whose acceptance would require rewriting a significant amount of commonly accepted history, and based on methods that depart from standard historiographical conventions.Cryptohistory...

, pseudobibliographica

Fictional book

A fictional book is a book that sometimes provides the basis of the plot of a story, a common thread in a series of books, or the works of a particular writer or canon of work. A fictional book may also be used as a mode of conceit to illustrate a story within a story.-Prominent fictional...

, barbarian

Barbarian

Barbarian and savage are terms used to refer to a person who is perceived to be uncivilized. The word is often used either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage...

s real and fictional, the Scopes Trial

Scopes Trial

The Scopes Trial—formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and informally known as the Scopes Monkey Trial—was a landmark American legal case in 1925 in which high school science teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act which made it unlawful to...

, the ancient tyrant Dionysius I of Syracuse

Dionysius I of Syracuse

Dionysius I or Dionysius the Elder was a Greek tyrant of Syracuse, in what is now Sicily, southern Italy. He conquered several cities in Sicily and southern Italy, opposed Carthage's influence in Sicily and made Syracuse the most powerful of the Western Greek colonies...

, and the author himself.

Contents

• "Silent Specters, Spiders, and Sauropods" (originally titled "Rubber Dinosaurs and Wooden Elephants) (from Analog Science Fiction and Fact
  Analog Science Fiction and Fact
  Analog Science Fiction and Fact is an American science fiction magazine. As of 2011, it is the longest running continuously published magazine of that genre...
  
  , mid-Dec. 1987)
• "The Con Man from Baghdad"
• "Three Thirds of a Hero" (poem, from Scribblings
  Scribblings
  Scribblings is a 1972 collection of writings by science fiction and fantasy author L. Sprague de Camp to celebrate his appearance as Guest of Honor at Boskone IX, a convention sponsored by the New England Science Fiction Association. The Association served as publisher.The book contains poetry,...
  
  (1972)
• "Lovecraft: Failed Aristocrat" (from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
  The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
  The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a digest-size American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House and then by Fantasy House. Both were subsidiaries of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Publications, which took over as publisher in 1958. Spilogale, Inc...
  
  , Jan. 1975)
• "Conan, Illusion, and Reality" (from Ares, no. 2, May 1980)
• "Thoats, Tharks, and Thews" (from Starlog
  Starlog
  Starlog was a monthly science-fiction film magazine published by Starlog Group Inc. The magazine was created by publishers Kerry O'Quinn and Norman Jacobs. O'Quinn was the magazine's editor while Jacobs ran the business side of things, dealing with typesetters, engravers and printers. They got...
  
  , v. 10, iss. 117, Apr. 1987)
• "Pseudohistory" (from Amra, v. 2, no. 70, Sep. 1981)
• "Books That Never Were" (from Scribblings
  Scribblings
  Scribblings is a 1972 collection of writings by science fiction and fantasy author L. Sprague de Camp to celebrate his appearance as Guest of Honor at Boskone IX, a convention sponsored by the New England Science Fiction Association. The Association served as publisher.The book contains poetry,...
  
  (1972) and The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
  The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
  The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction is a digest-size American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in 1949 by Mystery House and then by Fantasy House. Both were subsidiaries of Lawrence Spivak's Mercury Publications, which took over as publisher in 1958. Spilogale, Inc...
  
  , Dec. 1972)
• "The Man who Invented R. and D."
• "Brachiating in the Family Tree"
• "Lovecraft and the Aryans" (from Blond Barbarians and Noble Savages
  Blond Barbarians and Noble Savages
  Blond Barbarians and Noble Savages is a 1975 collection of essays on the fantasy writers Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft by science-fiction writer L. Sprague de Camp, first published by T-K Graphics...
  
  (1975)
• "Howard and the Celts " (from Blond Barbarians and Noble Savages
  Blond Barbarians and Noble Savages
  Blond Barbarians and Noble Savages is a 1975 collection of essays on the fantasy writers Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft by science-fiction writer L. Sprague de Camp, first published by T-K Graphics...
  
  (1975)
• "The Heroic Barbarian" (from Blond Barbarians and Noble Savages
  Blond Barbarians and Noble Savages
  Blond Barbarians and Noble Savages is a 1975 collection of essays on the fantasy writers Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft by science-fiction writer L. Sprague de Camp, first published by T-K Graphics...
  
  (1975)
• "Notes"
• "Index"