Product Description

Alfred Russel Wallace was 35 and stricken with malaria in the Moluccan Islands when, in a feverish flash of light, he stumbled on the theory of natural selection. It was his letter to Darwin about the discovery that panicked Darwin into rushing out "On The Origin of Species"

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2105375 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-10
• Released on: 2002-05-30
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 320 pages

From Library Journal
This anthology of excerpts from the basic writings of Alfred Russel Wallace (l823-l913) introduces the reader to his pioneering explorations in natural science and his critical insights into social issues. He is best remembered for codiscovering, independently of Charles Darwin, the mechanism of natural selection to explain the process of organic evolution. Yet as an extensive traveler, astute observer, and avid collector, Wallace also made valuable contributions to entomology, ornithology, biogeography, and anthropology particularly as a result of his long-term research in the Amazon and Malaysia. He focused on insect camouflage and mimicry (especially in butterflies) and described numerous life forms, from the wild orangutan to the birds of paradise. However, after embracing both evolutionary teleology and theistic spiritualism, Wallace claimed that the human species is unique in this dynamic universe. Although he remains in Darwin's shadow, Wallace was an important naturalist during the Victorian age. Edited by Berry, a research associate at Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology, this excellent book on Wallace's life and thought is recommended for large academic and public libraries. [Coming in September from Oxford University Press is Michael Shermer's In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace. Ed.] H. James Birx, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, N.
- H. James Birx, Canisius Coll., Buffalo, NY
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author
Andrew Berry is a research associate at Harvard University's Museum of Comparative Zoology. He contributes to, among others, the London Review of Books, Nature, Slate and The New York Observer.