author

Frances Bonker

1891–1959

A botanist and nature writer with a strong feel for the American desert, she also turned to dramatic historical subjects in her later books. Her work ranges from close, lively writing about cacti to novels and biographies tied to twentieth-century Europe.

1 Audiobook

The Fantastic Clan: The Cactus Family

The Fantastic Clan: The Cactus Family

by J. J. (John James) Thornber, Frances Bonker

About the author

Frances Bonker was an American botanist and author born in 1891 and died in 1959. Reliable sources connected with her work show that she wrote about desert plants and cacti, and that she collaborated with botanist J. J. Thornber on The Fantastic Clan: The Cactus Family, published in 1932.

Other records linked to her bibliography show a wider writing career than botany alone. She also wrote The Sage of the Desert and was credited with later books including The Mad Dictator: A Novel of Adolf Hitler and a biography of Eva Braun, suggesting an author whose interests moved from the natural history of the Southwest to modern European history.

Her scientific reputation lingered beyond her books: the cactus Echinocereus bonkerae was named for her. Some online sources disagree about parts of her life dates, but the 1891–1959 dates you provided match the strongest evidence surfaced here, so they are the safest to use.