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Alfred Russel Wallace: A Life
In 1858, Alfred Russel Wallace, aged thirty-five, weak with malaria, isolated in the Spice Islands, wrote to Charles he had, he said excitedly, worked out a theory of natural selection. Darwin was aghast--his work of decades was about to be scooped. Within two weeks, his outline and Wallace's paper were presented jointly in London. A year later, with Wallace still on the opposite side of the globe, Darwin published On the Origin of Species .
This new biography of Wallace traces the development of one of the most remarkable scientific travelers, naturalists, and thinkers of the nineteenth century. With vigor and sensitivity, Peter Raby reveals his subject as a courageous, unconventional explorer and a man of exceptional humanity. He draws more extensively on Wallace's correspondence than has any previous biographer and offers a revealing yet balanced account of the relationship between Wallace and Darwin.
Wallace lacked Darwin's advantages. A largely self-educated native of Wales, he spent four years in the Amazon in his mid-twenties collecting specimens for museums and wealthy patrons, only to lose his finds in a shipboard fire in the mid-Atlantic. He vowed never to travel again. Yet two years later he was off to the East Indies on a vast eight-year trek; here he discovered countless species and identified the point of divide between Asian and Australian fauna, 'Wallace's Line.'
After his return, he plunged into numerous controversies and published regularly until his death at the age of ninety, in 1913. He penned a classic volume on his travels, founded the discipline of biogeography, promoted natural selection, and produced a distinctive account of mind and consciousness in man. Sensitive and self-effacing, he was an ardent socialist--and spiritualist. Wallace is one of the neglected giants of the history of science and ideas. This stirring biography--the first for many years--puts him back at center stage, where he belongs.
This new biography of Wallace traces the development of one of the most remarkable scientific travelers, naturalists, and thinkers of the nineteenth century. With vigor and sensitivity, Peter Raby reveals his subject as a courageous, unconventional explorer and a man of exceptional humanity. He draws more extensively on Wallace's correspondence than has any previous biographer and offers a revealing yet balanced account of the relationship between Wallace and Darwin.
Wallace lacked Darwin's advantages. A largely self-educated native of Wales, he spent four years in the Amazon in his mid-twenties collecting specimens for museums and wealthy patrons, only to lose his finds in a shipboard fire in the mid-Atlantic. He vowed never to travel again. Yet two years later he was off to the East Indies on a vast eight-year trek; here he discovered countless species and identified the point of divide between Asian and Australian fauna, 'Wallace's Line.'
After his return, he plunged into numerous controversies and published regularly until his death at the age of ninety, in 1913. He penned a classic volume on his travels, founded the discipline of biogeography, promoted natural selection, and produced a distinctive account of mind and consciousness in man. Sensitive and self-effacing, he was an ardent socialist--and spiritualist. Wallace is one of the neglected giants of the history of science and ideas. This stirring biography--the first for many years--puts him back at center stage, where he belongs.
368 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 25, 2013
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist. He is best known for independently conceiving of the theory of evolution through natural selection, explaining that species differentiated over time and "were not created immutable." Wallace emphasized the environmental pressures on species that forced them to adapt to their environment.
He spent years collecting insects, birds, and animals from some of the most remote and difficult places on earth. He lost an entire season's worth of collecting and almost his life when his ship caught fire at sea. He suffered malaria, and other diseases, wounds and infections, hunger, and isolation in order to gather a huge catalog of animal and plant species.
He traveled through the Amazon and the Indonesian Archipelago. He identified the Wallace Line that divides species of that archipelago into two distinct origins, a western part of Asian origin, and an eastern part of Australian origin.
Wallace graciously accepted Darwin as the originator of the theory of species. Darwin graciously gave credit to Wallace for his original work on species differentiation. They were a couple of fine Victorian gentlemen.
Wallace developed an interest in spiritualism: communication with the dead, séances, "table rapping", and "table shifting". This was becoming a popular idea at the time:
Arthur Conan Doyle and Mary Todd Lincoln were believers. William James published some support.
[From Wikipedia I learned that in 1921 Thomas Lynn Bradford of Detroit, Michigan, committed suicide in an attempt to ascertain the existence of an afterlife. The New York Times ran a follow-up under the headline "Dead Spiritualist Silent."]
Wallace thought that spiritualism would reveal the non-material path of the evolution of human intelligence and morality.
Even Thomas Huxley and Darwin himself could not shake Wallace's belief in these claimed supernatural forces.
Wallace believed natural selection could not explain intelligence or morality. He thought non-material spiritual forces accounted for these human characteristics.
He also opposed vaccinations. And was incensed that they were compulsory. He became a social activist.
Wallace promoted land nationalization. He proposed that the state acquire all land, with limited compensation. The state would then lease it by auction, but to actual users only. These ideas tended to push Wallace to the fringe of contemporary scientific thinking but by then he'd proved his greatness as a tireless observer and collector.
He spent years collecting insects, birds, and animals from some of the most remote and difficult places on earth. He lost an entire season's worth of collecting and almost his life when his ship caught fire at sea. He suffered malaria, and other diseases, wounds and infections, hunger, and isolation in order to gather a huge catalog of animal and plant species.
He traveled through the Amazon and the Indonesian Archipelago. He identified the Wallace Line that divides species of that archipelago into two distinct origins, a western part of Asian origin, and an eastern part of Australian origin.
Wallace graciously accepted Darwin as the originator of the theory of species. Darwin graciously gave credit to Wallace for his original work on species differentiation. They were a couple of fine Victorian gentlemen.
Wallace developed an interest in spiritualism: communication with the dead, séances, "table rapping", and "table shifting". This was becoming a popular idea at the time:
Arthur Conan Doyle and Mary Todd Lincoln were believers. William James published some support.
[From Wikipedia I learned that in 1921 Thomas Lynn Bradford of Detroit, Michigan, committed suicide in an attempt to ascertain the existence of an afterlife. The New York Times ran a follow-up under the headline "Dead Spiritualist Silent."]
Wallace thought that spiritualism would reveal the non-material path of the evolution of human intelligence and morality.
Even Thomas Huxley and Darwin himself could not shake Wallace's belief in these claimed supernatural forces.
Wallace believed natural selection could not explain intelligence or morality. He thought non-material spiritual forces accounted for these human characteristics.
He also opposed vaccinations. And was incensed that they were compulsory. He became a social activist.
Wallace promoted land nationalization. He proposed that the state acquire all land, with limited compensation. The state would then lease it by auction, but to actual users only. These ideas tended to push Wallace to the fringe of contemporary scientific thinking but by then he'd proved his greatness as a tireless observer and collector.
February 12, 2013
I read this biography of Wallace while simultaneously reading Wallace's Malay Archipelago. At first, I thought the two were redundant and I was about to abandon the Raby volume, but after a slow start, he begins to add other information to Wallace's accounts of his travels and studies which definitely enrich the reading experience. For example, while Wallace may have written of an incident in Malay Archipelago, Raby will recount parts of a letter he may have written to his mother or brother or friend about the same incident that are far more revealing into his true thoughts. This is what good biography is all about: digging beyond the person's 'official life' into the behind-the-scenes motivations, thoughts, ruminations, fears, etc. So buy the Raby book and download the free Malay Archipelago. Next up is Paul Sochaczewski's An Inordinate Fondness for Beetles: Campfire Conversations with Alfred Russel Wallace on People and Nature Based on CommonTravel in the Malay Archipelago.
January 26, 2018
Well-researched and comprehensive biography, if a little dry of human feeling. Raby treats the great accomplishment of Wallace's life—his theory of natural selection—as simply another event in his life. The book spends as much time on everything else Wallace accomplished... a regrettable amount of petty lawsuits and advocating for spiritualism. This is interesting to think about in the abstract (what do people famous for One Thing do afterwards? Who and what are they separate from that One Thing?) but if you picked this up largely because you were interested in the history of evolutionary theory and wanted a more microscopic look at his Malay years, I would choose another book.
I don't usually comment on book covers since they're largely out of the author's control and irrelevant to the contents. However, this thing looks like the product of an intentionally poorly-Photoshopped meme. That's fitting, as Alfred Russel Wallace's life indeed sounds like a bunch of shitposts and dank memes jammed together. He definitely lived, as the title of this book says, A Life.
I don't usually comment on book covers since they're largely out of the author's control and irrelevant to the contents. However, this thing looks like the product of an intentionally poorly-Photoshopped meme. That's fitting, as Alfred Russel Wallace's life indeed sounds like a bunch of shitposts and dank memes jammed together. He definitely lived, as the title of this book says, A Life.
August 3, 2007
My hero!
Interestingly enough, Peter Raby, the author, is not a scientist but instead a lecturer on Drama and English at Cambridge. Perhaps that accounts for this very human biography, less centered on science and more on personality, which was fine by me. Wallace was an admirable person in many respects, yet Raby doesn't shy away from his foibles and downright wrong-headed notions, either. Wallace is such an appealing underdog -- it's very hard not to be impressed by his wide-ranging, independent mind and his almost heroic pursuit of knowledge. Raby's biography does him justice.
Interestingly enough, Peter Raby, the author, is not a scientist but instead a lecturer on Drama and English at Cambridge. Perhaps that accounts for this very human biography, less centered on science and more on personality, which was fine by me. Wallace was an admirable person in many respects, yet Raby doesn't shy away from his foibles and downright wrong-headed notions, either. Wallace is such an appealing underdog -- it's very hard not to be impressed by his wide-ranging, independent mind and his almost heroic pursuit of knowledge. Raby's biography does him justice.
January 17, 2008
Inspiring biography of this scientific pioneer. It made me want to move to a small Indonesian island and pin insects to boards for the rest of my life.
July 24, 2014
More hagiography than biography at points, but Wallace is such a bizarrely endearing figure that I suppose it would pose a challenge for any biographer to swallow back excess praise.
March 3, 2024
Raby follows Wallace from his childhood, through his fledgling career as a collector to a respected scientist, then his later years when he returns home to England. Wallace spends 8 years exploring the tropics, conceiving the same idea as that of Darwin - that of natural selection.
The book explains why Wallace deferred to Darwin with regards to priority, and why he was more ready than Darwin to stand by his insight. It also explains why Dawin was able to publish so prolifically compared to Wallace. The book also hints that after Darwin's magnus opus, Origins, Wallace changed his plans for publication towards species distribution. What is missing is a description of those works, especially how his idea of an Asian and Australian fauna and fauna evolved.
Wallace is famous not only for natural selection but also for the Wallace line. A map of two versions of his lines compared to Huxleys line is given, but Wallace's lines receive less than a 1 sentence mention. Huxleys insight is not mentioned. These are major omissions.
The details of Wallace's field work are fascinating. He seems to be a man of a lot of contradictions e.g. at first admiring some natives, judging others, reflecting in the benefits of Dutch rule of natives, abhorring slavery then almost condoning it as a natural order.
Wallace was an intensely private man. Unfortunately this means little is known of his private life. His daughter became a teacher, his son an engineer and his other child is mentioned as having died. His wife, over 20 years his junior, joined him on local forays and together they built his dream home and garden.
There are two sets of black and white photos of his parents, of Wallace at different ages and some of the places he lived, along with some of his family.
Wallace lived until his 90s, still active in writing and promoting societal causes. The accolades for his scientific work, particularly survival of the fittest aptly flowed.
The writing style and grammar is excellent. An interesting book.
The book explains why Wallace deferred to Darwin with regards to priority, and why he was more ready than Darwin to stand by his insight. It also explains why Dawin was able to publish so prolifically compared to Wallace. The book also hints that after Darwin's magnus opus, Origins, Wallace changed his plans for publication towards species distribution. What is missing is a description of those works, especially how his idea of an Asian and Australian fauna and fauna evolved.
Wallace is famous not only for natural selection but also for the Wallace line. A map of two versions of his lines compared to Huxleys line is given, but Wallace's lines receive less than a 1 sentence mention. Huxleys insight is not mentioned. These are major omissions.
The details of Wallace's field work are fascinating. He seems to be a man of a lot of contradictions e.g. at first admiring some natives, judging others, reflecting in the benefits of Dutch rule of natives, abhorring slavery then almost condoning it as a natural order.
Wallace was an intensely private man. Unfortunately this means little is known of his private life. His daughter became a teacher, his son an engineer and his other child is mentioned as having died. His wife, over 20 years his junior, joined him on local forays and together they built his dream home and garden.
There are two sets of black and white photos of his parents, of Wallace at different ages and some of the places he lived, along with some of his family.
Wallace lived until his 90s, still active in writing and promoting societal causes. The accolades for his scientific work, particularly survival of the fittest aptly flowed.
The writing style and grammar is excellent. An interesting book.
February 10, 2017
A very full and well researched account of the life of this now neglected Victorian naturalist. It really shows the breath of his interests over his long life from tropical explorer and naturalist to his work on land reform, socialism, and his passionate belief in the spirit world. It also demonstrated how during his life time he was accredited with Darwin to the theory of evolution by natural selection and it is only in the 20th century that his contribution to natural science was largely forgotten. The book's coverage of his journeys demonstrate what a determined and fearless traveller he was, entering into uncertain worlds, with poor rationings and often ill health. Some parts make difficult reading, especially the section on all the killing for his collections, but these are different times now so hard to judge retrospectively. Although there is much talk by him of savages, after living with many tribes he gained a great deal of respect for their lifestyles and questions what "being civilized" means.
I didn't know much about Wallace before so I read the book alongside reading some of his works and watching Bill Baily's two part film about him.
I didn't know much about Wallace before so I read the book alongside reading some of his works and watching Bill Baily's two part film about him.
August 3, 2015
What are we to make of Wallace? On the one hand, he spent many arduous, years doing the hard work of a field naturalist in the Amazon and the Malay Archipelago studying and collecting species, and he wrote a brilliant summary of the theory of natural selection while recovering from malaria in Sarawak on the other side of the earth from Darwin, who was suddenly jolted into publishing his own long simmering theory. Unfortunately for the biographer (and this reader), Wallace lived another half century. Although he published seminal books on biogeography and made other scientific contributions, he spent much of his time at railing against vaccinations, dreaming about socio-economic and eugenic programs and attending seances. This paragon of scientific creativity slid through the quackery of spiritualism into the quagmire of what we would now call intelligent design.
This long period of mostly harebrained ideas is a problem for any biographer. However, I believe that the book would have been better if more time had been spent analyzing the similarities and differences between Darwin's ideas and Wallace's and less time on Wallace's many, many residences and non-scientific speculations.
This long period of mostly harebrained ideas is a problem for any biographer. However, I believe that the book would have been better if more time had been spent analyzing the similarities and differences between Darwin's ideas and Wallace's and less time on Wallace's many, many residences and non-scientific speculations.
September 26, 2015
Raby brings a fullness to Wallace's biography with a readable, accessible style. He relates the story while portraying Wallace's thought process, feeling, intellectual and social commitments and how these aspects of the man came together to influence his relationships and life choices. Throughout the book, but especially in the last chapter, Raby critiques the rehash made of the Darwin-Wallace exchange around the theory of evolution by natural selection and subsequent events. More than just an excellent biography of Wallace, this book is a step towards a deeper understanding of this period of intellectual history.
November 9, 2008
Great biography of the greatest working-class naturalist that ever lived. Fuck Darwin! ARW concocted the theory of natural selection...with the help of some interesting insular populations of Indonesian birdwing butterflies.
October 13, 2014
Dr. Alfred Russel Wallace has been a hero of mine ever since I found out about him. After reading this biography, he's still my hero, flaws and feet of clay, all.
Every biologist in the world should read his biography.
Every biologist in the world should read his biography.
January 18, 2014
This was a good source of information about Wallace's life and times.
February 5, 2020
Fascinating account of a major scientist now almost forgotten, especially in the US.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews