I found my copy in an antiquarian book store in Davenport, Iowa for all of $4. It consists of small chapters, excerpts from the masters, from Copernicus, to Newton, to Sir James Jeans, to Edward Jenner. Various editions go back to the 40's. Gives one the flavors of what was important then and now. Where else are you likely to read an excerpt from Galileo (a proof that the earth moves

Shapley discovered the "halo" of globular clusters orbiting the Milky Way early in the 20th century and made other important discoveries about ours and other galaxies. This book is an interesting introduction to this fascinating area of astronomy.

Unfortunately, Shapley's scientific autobiography, "Through Rugged Ways to the Stars," is no longer available, which was worth reading. (Also, it was a fairly short as biographies go).