# Ivan Terence Sanderson: An Unforgettable Character



## Strange Magic (Sep 14, 2015)

In the early 1960s, naturalist ITS was a quite well-known author of books on natural history and, increasingly, on borderline "scientific" subjects such as the Yeti or Sasquatch, the Loch Ness monster, and other "unexplained" phenomena. I owned his book on North American geography and wildlife, _The Continent We Live On_ and his book on primates, _The Monkey Kingdom_. Meanwhile a friend had made it his business to track down where in rural northwest New Jersey Ivan Sanderson lived. He did this simply by going up into Warren County and asking the locals whether they knew ITS and where he might be found. And indeed he found him out in the back country, living in a large old farmhouse, with a bit of acreage, several ponds and outbuildings, and an old school bus up on blocks serving as general storage.

At the time, I had just met my future wife as we were both students at college, she a year ahead of me. My friend had visited Ivan several times, and I had joined him and Ivan in Warren County only recently over a bitterly cold weekend, meeting them in a local bar and then accompanying them to Ivan's home. This was ITS's standard way of meeting new people, as the bar was much more easily located than his rural homestead. It was very cold trip, for my unreliable Fiat had no heat, and also, overnight, the outside temperature at Ivan's fell to minus 18 degrees.

That first weekend at Ivan's was spent in listening to Ivan's unending stream of ideas and anecdotes about his past life, travels, and projects. He was quite the most amiable, interesting man I ever met. He reminded me of an otter, with his slicked-back hair, mustache, love of water, his supple slenderness, and his unfailing cheerfulness. When not talking/listening, we were set to helping ITS and Alma paint the interior of their house, in mostly yellow and green--the "life colors" as longtime tropical naturalist Ivan put it.

I do not recall how many times I visited Ivan and Alma following that first trip--not many at all--but come warmer weather, I had known my girlfriend long enough to work up the courage to ask her out. A trip to Ivan's was forthcoming, so I leaped and suggested to her that she join me. After persuading her dubious father that she would be safe in my company, she agreed, and we drove to Warren County in her 1950 Ford. ITS and Alma were as taken with my girlfriend as was I, with Alma deciding that my girlfriend should be renamed Grace. We spent a wonderful weekend at Ivan's, talking, looking at their collection of interesting furniture and strange objects gathered over years of travel, but mostly listening to Ivan's endless stream of adventures, ideas, memories. We cooled off in one of Ivan's ponds, and it was while in water that Ivan's resemblance to a cheerful river otter was complete as he dove, swam, slicked back his hair and smoothed his mustache. We all sat out Saturday evening as darkness fell, and watched, first, as the swallows disappeared for the evening into Ivan's attic, to be replaced by bats tumbling out of the same small open window--perfect mosquito control, said Ivan. Wonderful memories! Needless to say, my girlfriend and I quickly bonded following that first date and visit, and married soon after.

I knew and visited Ivan starting in 1961, and probably last saw him sometime in 1967 or 1968. The attached memoir/biography of ITS and Alma of Richard "Zippy" Grigonis is the most extensive documentation of Ivan Sanderson's life and personality anywhere. He presents the real Ivan Sanderson very accurately, the man my wife and I remember so well from our own early relationship. Part real scientist/naturalist, part showman, part creature of his own imagination, Ivan was unique, and his somewhat equally enigmatic wife Alma was unfailingly hospitable and friendly. They both died rather young and in rather straitened circumstances, long after we had left their magic circle. I retain, though, a vivid memory of them both, an autographed copy of his book on Abominable Snowmen, yetis and the like, and my card as a member of Ivan's Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained, or SITU. The link to Grigonis' excellent memoir-biography of ITS is attached.

http://richardgrigonis.com/Ch01 Prologue and On the Trail of Ivan Sanderson.html

Here is Wikipedia on Ivan Sanderson:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_T._Sanderson

Sent from my iPad


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