Tragic life of one of the great astronomy authors

I went to a used book store and picked up the three volume reference work: Burnham's Celestial Handbook.

I was amazed by the easy reading style along with the detail and depth while being a bit quirky (still looks to be copies of typwritten pages). Googling around, I found that the author was a high school grad who discovered a comet and got hired into a position at the Lowell Observatory to do menial observing data. He was a flawed man, however. The story of his life is fascinating, in so many different ways.

RIP, Bob.