Carl Sagan: A Life

by Keay Davidson

A penetrating, mesmerizing biography of a scientific icon "Absolutely fascinating . . . Davidson has done a remarkable job."-Sir Arthur C. Clarke "Engaging . . . accessible, carefully documented . . . sophisticated."-Dr. David Hollinger for The New York Times Book Review "Entertaining . . . Davidson treats [the] nuances of Sagan's complex life with understanding and sympathy."-The Christian Science Monitor "Excellent . . . Davidson acts as a keen critic to Sagan's works and their vast uncertainties."-Scientific American "A fascinating book about an extraordinary man."-Johnny Carson "Davidson, an award-winning science writer, has written an absorbing portrait of this Pied Piper of planetary science. Davidson thoroughly explores Sagan's science, wrestles with his politics, and plumbs his personal passions with a telling instinct for the revealing underside of a life lived so publicly."-Los Angeles Times Carl Sagan was one of the most celebrated scientists of this century—the handsome and alluring visionary who inspired a generation to look to the heavens and beyond. His life was both an intellectual feast and an emotional rollercoaster. Based on interviews with Sagan's family and friends, including his widow, Ann Druyan; his first wife, acclaimed scientist Lynn Margulis; and his three sons, as well as exclusive access to many personal papers, this highly acclaimed life story offers remarkable insight into one of the most influential, provocative, and beloved figures of our time—a complex, contradictory prophet of the Space Age.

Genres: Biography, Science, Nonfiction, Astronomy, Autobiography, Physics, Biography Memoir

826 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Keay Davidson is an award-winning American science journalist and nonfiction author known for making complex scientific ideas accessible to general readers. He has spent decades covering science for major newspapers, including the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle, where he has written extensively on astronomy, physics, and the culture of science. Davidson is the author of several acclaimed books, among them Wrinkles in Time, co-written with Nobel laureate George Smoot, which chronicles the discovery of the cosmic background radiation, and Carl Sagan: A Life, a widely praised biography noted for its balance of scientific insight and personal portraiture. His work has earned honors from organizations such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the National Association of Science Writers. Davidson’s writing is distinguished by intellectual rigor, narrative clarity, and a thoughtful examination of science within its broader social and historical context.

Reviews

[Raquel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Há muitos anos que queria ler esta biografia; Carl Sagan é uma referência gigante para mim, desde sempre.
E esta biografia, em particular, está muito completa. As (quase) seiscentas páginas tentam fazer jus à vida e obra de Carl Sagan. Não é fácil, porque Sagan não foi uma pessoa consensual. A sua energia, curiosidade e amor genuíno pelo conhecimento (e pela sua difusão) deram-lhe um carisma único.

Desde a infância que Sagan estava predestinado às estrelas. O seu "Cosmos" fascinou (e espero que continue a fascinar) gerações. Polémico, irreverente e entusiasta da ufologia. As maravilhas que Marte parece estar prestes a revelar-nos há muito que foram sonhadas por Sagan.

Foi preso por se manifestar contra as armas nucleares, imaginou os contactos de "Contacto", revelou-nos a nossa pequenez ao conseguir que a Voyager 1 tirasse a emblemática foto ao nosso "pale blue dot", organizou o envio de mensagens terráqueas a seres do espaço interestelar e, foi autor de uma série de livros de áreas multidisciplinares.

A biografia parece-me honesta, mostrando as contradições, as complexidades e o carisma de Sagan. Contextualiza cada época da sua vida em termos científicos e políticos e ainda inclui uma série de fotografias de Sagan ao longo da sua vida.

Morreu precocemente aos 62 anos mas o seu legado não irá desaparecer.
❤️

"PER ASPERA AD ASTRA"

[Malcolm · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carl Sagan is a man I admire very much. This biography is really great and does not hold back on the warts as well as the wonders of this famous scientist. Sagan had a mission of interpreting science for the average person but also did serious research of his own. He wrote many books, some of which I have read. Reading this biography made me want to revisit his titles. This book reminds me that famous people are complex and have failures and short-comings. We tend to idealize people we only know through their books or the media. Sagan was sometimes off the wall with some of his ideas, but then again, he let his imagination fly. Great science begins with imagination but cannot end with it as we see reading this book. I highly recommend the book if you are looking for an interesting read about a compelling and important figure of the scientific world 1960-1996.

Malcolm Watts BA MSW
Visit my writing website
www.authorsden.com/malcolmwatts
Check out my novel, Reflections from Shadow

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting life. It boggles my mind that a man so knowledgable about science and astronomy would be essentially an atheist. It was sad that he sincerely believed that at death that he would no longer exist and that he would never see his wife again. What a sad belief.

[Melissa Fondakowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this book in 2016, and finally finished it in 2020. It's not because it wasn't compelling - I just got distracted and bored with learning how much of a pill Sagan was IRL. When I started reading it, I just needed to know one thing: how he managed to stay "not believing" in God even when the going got rough. I didn't really learn the answer to that, so I put it down. When I picked it back up four years later, I didn't need that question answered anymore, so much. But I remembered why I enjoy reading biographies so much in general: they are fantastic history books. You get to see the world from one perspective; through the eyes of one life. The more biographies you read from the same era, the more completely enriched my understanding of history is. Because history is made up of millions of minor events - in other words, our daily lives - all of which come together to create our history. And as they say: can't go forward without knowing where we've been.

I am giving it 4 stars only because the author throws in a little bit too much gossip/opinion toward the end of the book.

[Visakan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Carl Sagan was a giant amongst men- he was a Renaissance man, like Da Vinci before him and Steve Jobs after him. He was a multi-disciplinarian, the kind of person that the systems of the world discourage, stifle, and eventually worship.

I've always felt like I was meant to be such a person- a person who could be described as some sort of elite, yet somehow manages to democratize knowledge. So I figured I might as well study the lives of such great men who lived before me, and hopefully distil from it the principles of their success, such that I too might contribute substantially to the world.

Sagan was wonderful, complex, inspiring, and painfully human. His strengths were substantial, but he was only human and he had some pretty heartbreaking weaknesses too. Still, an incredible life, with an incredible legacy. I need to re-read this one.

[Lisbonauta · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mergulhado a cerca de 250 páginas de profundadide do livro de Keay Davidson, a leitura deste livro era uma viagem que ia da recolha de dados que rodeiam o nascimento de Carl Sagan, em 1935, e que incluem informação sobre os pais e os avós de Sagan, até ao momento em que sai de Harvard, onde ensinava e onde não lhe é concedida a nomeação definitiva, e ruma para a universidade de Cornell, onde vai trabalhar. É, também, a fase do seu segundo casamento, com Linda Salzman, em 1968, do qual nasce um filho, Nick Sagan, em 1970.

[Interessam-me bastante os momentos sobre Nick Sagan, e em que este fala sobre o seu pai, porque li uma trilogia de Nick Sagan que muito apreciei, três romances de ficção científica (Idlewild, Edenborn, Everfree).]

Pronunciava-se uma mudança bastante significativa: nesta fase os interesses de Sagan, vastos e saltitantes, mas de modo geral circunscritos à carreira científica (mesmo que seja notado pelas teorias imaginativas e especulativas), extravasarão para um campo mais artístico, menos subjugado à visão científica, também mais activista e que o aproximarão do grande público como divulgador de ciência numa escala de muito maior popularidade do que até aqui.

Até esse momento (as 250 páginas, sensivelmente metade do livro), seguimos a vida de Sagan, por Brooklyn, onde nasceu, Chicago, onde fez a universidade, Califórnia, para onde foi trabalhar, e depois Harvard.

Keay Davidson é jornalista de ciência. Faz uma análise muito documentada e com amplas perspectivas dos acontecimentos da vida de Sagan, mas é também um biógrafo apaixonado na leitura faz desses acontecimentos.

Escreveu uma obra muito completa, com um entrosar interessante da vida de Sagan com as teorias científicas e os seus avanços e recuos, e com os depoimentos das muitas pessoas que entrevistou e a quem dá viva voz. Fá-lo com autoridade e sem que a sua voz de biógrafo perturbe o discurso. Mas também o faz inegavelmente com a sua voz, que ocasionalmente se ouve de forma mais límpida, mas não perturbadora.

Chegados ao final do livro, confirma-se essa mudança da metade do livro, trazida pela idade, pelo divórcio e um segundo casamento com uma mulher de áreas mais artísticas (a primeira mulher era e é cientista) pelo amor encontrado com uma terceira esposa, pelo activismo anti-nuclear, pela televisão (Cosmos), a escrita de ficção (Contacto), a sempre presente consciência da fugacidade, os outros livros de divulgação de ciência, o reconhecimento de erros, entre outros aspectos. Fundamentalmente, depois dessa viragem na vida de Sagan a carreira não ocupa um lugar menos fundamental, mas transforma-se para englobar como fundamentais princípios que extravasam o campo científico.

Ao longo do livro dá-se voz a várias críticas, não só às opiniões favoráveis, sobre cada uma das teorias e obras e feitos mais importantes de Sagan.

A título de exemplo, veja-se uma das principais críticas a Sagan, que surge na página 274: “a esperança de Sagan de salvação extraterrestre através do SETI contradizia fragrantemente a sua crítica no simpósio sobre ovnis, em 1969, de que era «politicamente perigoso» para os entusiastas dos discos voadores alimentar «a expectativa de que vamos ser salvos de nós próprios por alguma intervenção estelar milagrosa.» Essa desilusão desencoraja-nos de tentar «resolver os nossos próprios problemas»”

Claro que muita da argumentação de Sagan para a importância de, se houver vida inteligente a enviar sinais através do cosmos, estarmos receptivos e prontos para a captar, não passava apenas por dizer que isso nos ajudaria a que nos salvássemos de nós mesmos através dos conselhos de uma civizalização tecnológica que não se autodestruiu. Referiu outros benefícios, como relativizarmos os problemas que afligem as nações da Terra, perante a imensidão do cosmos, prepararmo-nos para saírmos da Terra, caso sobrevivamos até ao momento em que tal seja indispensável para a continuidade da espécie humana.

O ser humano precisa de sair do Sistema Solar para não perecer nele (se durar até lá), quando o Sol extinguir a vida na Terra e depois de extinguir. Entretanto, defendeu que seria difícil sair do Sistema Solar sem a ajuda milagrosa (o equivalente a divina) de uma civilização tecnicamente superior que nos explicasse como pode uma civilização técnica sobreviver à ameaça que é para si própria. Mas as décadas da Guerra Fria passaram e o ser humano não se autodestruiu e pareceu encontrar um equilíbrio nuclear, para o qual a sua divulgação de um possível “inverno nuclear” contribuiu. E as suas preocupações focaram-se ainda mais sobre o que o ser humano pode e deve fazer para assegurar a sua continuidade. Uma das coisas mais importantes, que julgo ter aprendido com este livro e outros de Sagan, é conciliar o conhecimento e pensamento científico com o nosso lado mais penso à crença nas ideias: o amor, a fé, a alma, a salvação.

Através de uma incrível capacidade comunicativa e dom para a palavra dita e escrita, foi um divulgador que despertou paixão e interesse pelo pensamento científico, pela consideração da nossa dimensão face ao cosmos e face aos nossos próprios problemas, nada irrelevantes.

Keay Davidson, que tem o mérito de expor tão equilibrada e claramente a vida e obra de Carl Sagan, não parece ter deixado nada de fora. É de salientar a relevância das mais de 100 páginas de notas e referências bibliográficas, que nos permitem ter confiança na investigação que deu lugar à obra. Também acho que devo salientar a capacidade que o autor tem de despertar a vontade de o leitor continuar a ler e reler os livros que Sagan escreveu e de comparar o conhecimento que comportam com o que entretanto a ciência descobriu e propôs. É uma biografia magistral.

[Terelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

You may have read Sagan's works or seen the Cosmos series, but biography traces the evolution of Sagan's thought and his struggles with pseudoscience and religious skepticism.

[Giuliano · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what a journey!
I have long been a Carl Sagan fan and couldn't wait to dive into this book when I got it. Keay Davidson does a great job in my opinion as he is not shy to document Sagan's perceived shortcomings - his sense of entitlement, his sometimes less-than-optimal scientific rigor, his run-ins with other scientists who accused him of doing little work yet receiving all the accolades.
By the same token, the book honors the memory of a man who did science a world of good by popularising important topics, including the risk of a nuclear winter and the impact of greenhouse gases in warming the planet's atmopshere.
Most importantly, I believe, Sagan was an inspiration to a whole generation (and more!) of children and youth who went on to choose a career in STEM and to make great contributions to science.

Carl Sagan was an interesting character. He became very wealthy and accustomed to life's luxuries, he was guilty of fanstasising too much and not always corroborating his ideas with iron-clad research. But he was also a feminist, an anti-racist and an environmentalist at at time when many chose to simply ignore these issues. He put science on the map and with his to the death rationalism, challenged accepted worldviews and religion.

He worte key papers (on the greenhouse effect on Venus for example) and gave science a human dimension it had never had before - one that instantly connected it with millions of people and changed their lives forever.

[Nathan Southern · Rating 5 out of 5]

A front-runner for the most engrossing biography I have ever read. Davidson's provocative thesis involves the beguiling idea that cosmologist Sagan, arguably the most outspoken atheist of the 20th Century outside of Madalyn Murray O'Hair, possessed a deep religious inclination on par with many self-professed theologians. The iconic scientist, Davidson argues, chose to redirect spiritual needs through unconventional secular channels, including an indefatigable belief in the existence of extraterrestrial life, the eccentric reinvention of a pursuit of eternal life in the form of the Voyager craft and record launch, and even brazen attempts to play God by recreating the evolution of life in time-controlled laboratory environments. Reading this tome, you may love Sagan's methods or find them futile, but there is no denying Carl's genius, or the poignancy (perhaps even a touch of desperation) in his underlying tenacity. The story touches on some deep and universal longings shared by the faith-driven and secular alike. The result is a profound, unique and remarkable book. Don't miss this one!

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

After recently reading Carl Sagan's Cosmos and the second Cosmos by his widow Ann Druyon, I decided to read the two biographies of Sagan which I had in my garage, this one by science journalist Keay Davidson and the one by scientist William Poundstone. Both are from 1999, two years after Sagan's death. This one I read first.

Sagan's life was very interesting; he was a pioneer of planetary science and heavily involved in the unmanned space probes to the planets, author of a science fiction novel which became a successful film (Contact) and an activist against nuclear weapons, but more importantly he was a popularizer of science to the general population via a number of books and the Cosmos television series.

Davidson gives a good account of all these facets, although I would have preferred more detail about his scientific work, but concentrates a bit too much on his supposed personal failings, his "arrogance" and his two divorces. The book is obviously well researched but somewhat repetitious.

[Boštjan · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a longtime admirer of Carl Sagan's work, picking up this book was something I approached with a mix of excitement and fear. I was eager to learn more about the man behind the poetic voice of Cosmos, but I also feared that a detailed account might diminish the "demigod" image I had built in my mind.
The portrait painted was profoundly human in all his brilliance and contradictions, the author clearly did his homework. He presents him as a dedicated scientist in his professional life but also emotionally distant or even arrogant in his personal relationships, particularly with his first two wives and children.
It was interesting to read again about Sagan's major scientific and public achievements such as his work on Venus and Mars, the "nuclear winter" hypothesis, the Cosmos series, and his novel Contact.
I would highly recommend this biography which is one of the two I read, the other being by William Poundstone.
The book cements dr.Carl Sagan as the greatest science popularizer of the 20th century.

[Miguel Figueira · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a biography of Carl Sagan. Carl Sagan made me understand how science is astonishing. Besides author and scientist I guess he was also a philosopher. He posed a question in one his books : "Who speaks in the name of the earth"?. In fact the nations and nationalism in extreme may have bad consequences.
This is a good book if you want to know more about the person.
Curiously i retain two things about this book : first he was probably in LSD when he wrote some books; second he may not had a good family life. Somewhere in the book is written that one of his sons was marveled when he passed a hand in his hair.

[Adagiobear · Rating 2 out of 5]

While it is highly interesting to read about the details of Sagan's life, Davidson's need to relentlessly, almost pathologically, beat the reader over the head, for 430 pages, with the fact that Sagan wasn't a perfect scientist, sceptic, father, husband, activist, feminist, friend, etc., etc., becomes tiresome well before the end of the book.

[Warren Gossett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved reading more details about Sagan. I was lucky enough to have him one semester as one of my teachers at Cornell University.

[Iceman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Como qualquer biografia, a presente tem como objectivo traçar a vida pessoal e profissional de um homem que foi um dos maiores cientistas de sempre e alguém que esteve por detrás, um visionário da Era Espacial.

Escrito três anos após a sua prematura morte, esta obra é extensa e analisa muitíssimo bem a vida profissional de Sagan.

Desde o seu nascimento em 1934 até à sua morte em 1996, o autor começa por narrar factos da vida dos pais de Sagan. Desde a sua ida para os Estados Unidos, até ao seu casamento. Sagan, desde muito cedo se interessa pelo espaço e logo com 5 anos questiona a mãe do que eram aquelas luzinhas no céu. É o início de uma mente brilhante, várias vezes controversa, arrogante mas genial, que elevou a Física e a Astronomia a patamares nunca dantes próximos quando os tornou palpáveis ao público com o seu mega sucesso Cosmos.

Pelo facto de eu ser da geração desse brilhante programa, empreendi a leitura atenta desta biografia correndo o risco de me desiludir com um cientista que mais me fascinou e que continua a viver no meu imaginário.

E dificilmente isso sucederia porque o autor foi muito inteligente na forma como construiu esta obra. Teve o cuidado de abordar a vida de Carl Sagan de uma forma muito delicada. Assentando o seu texto em entrevistas com as ex-mulheres, viúva, filhos e amigos, mostrou-nos um homem viciado no trabalho, com a consciência que o seu tempo na Terra seria muito curto para o que queria fazer o que, percebe-se, veio a influenciar negativamente a sua vida pessoal. Porém e isso é um ponto negativo que dou a esta obra, a vida pessoal de Sagan foi pouco aflorada e, depois de terminado o livro, enquanto fiquei com a visão clara da sua importância no campo da exploração espacial, essa visão ficou quase na mesma no aspecto da sua vida pessoal.

Em todo o caso, gostei de perceber da sua fixação em vida no universo que se preocupava em demonstrar a sua probabilidade. Um homem de contradições e paixões que sabia apimentar discussões e que não tinha qualquer problema em exprimir o seu ponto de vista. Muito eloquente e apaixonado desde criança por ficção cientifica, foi também um grande escritor, deixando-nos obras de cariz cientifica e filosófica que pretenderam atingir a consciência dos leitores para o incomensurável universo que nos rodeia.

[Roger Leiton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well documented biography of Sagan, a pioneer of the planetary studies and astrobiology. The author correctly balanced an extensive description of Sagan's professional and personal life, as well as the scientific and political contexts.
Sagan was a very influential character in both science and politics, while in the intimacy he was not always an easy person to deal with. Both admirers and detractors agree that he was brilliant, creative, literate, driven, and passionate about what he saw as truth. Yet even those who loved him most understand that he could seem arrogant and pompous. Sagan was certain of his fame, yet demanding of admiration. Sagan, the scientist, the political activist, the absent father, the ambiguous atheist, and the celebrity are all nicely described in this well written book.

[Rebekah Kohlhepp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aside from some sections that I found to be a little more technical than they needed to be, I thought that Davidson did a great job with this biography. Inevitably, the author’s opinions are always going to sneak in, especially as the story progresses. I didn’t mind too much though; as in Davidson’s assessment in the above quote, I think his analyses are more than fair. But all in all, with his rigorous research and detailed storytelling, Davidson did an outstanding job of honoring Sagan’s story by telling who he really was.

Read more: https://sheseeksnonfiction.blog/2022/...

[Jorge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comentário à versão em Português: Carl Sagan - Uma Vida

Como os meus amigos sabem, Carl Sagan é um dos meus ídolos. Infelizmente morreu relativamente cedo e aliás tragicamente. Mas até na morte foi grande !
Não sendo as biografias um dos meus géneros preferidos, gostei muito de conhecer as outras facetas do cientista e do homem. Sobretudo as suas vulnerabilidades. O unico pequeno repara que faço ao livro é que me pareceu que, por vezes, o seus autor (Keay Davidson), sem duvida uma pessoa também erudita, talvez se tenha excedido na exposição dos seus conhecimentos e/ou pontos de vista.

[Maurice Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

The suitably critical bio of Sagan, why he was an unrealistic optimist, how his unevidenced faith in alien life was a substitute for God, how he was an armchair commy, how he experienced the science world's failings, how he sneered at his son's science skills unnecessarily, how some scientists similarly sneered at him. But not why he was an atheist, it's just accepted arbitrarily that he was. And of his mum too, socially overbearingly insisting on believing what she wanted to about folks even when denied to her face.

[Skye Wentworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Balancing popular myth with scientific history, this even-handed biography examines the life and work of Carl Sagan. Beginning with an analysis of how his close relationship with his eccentric mother shaped his career development and married life, the book details the professional and personal journeys of this scientist who gained world recognition as both a popularizer of astronomy and a scientific visionary.

[Ogi Ogas · Rating 4 out of 5]

My ratings of books on Goodreads are solely a crude ranking of their utility to me, and not an evaluation of literary merit, entertainment value, social importance, humor, insightfulness, scientific accuracy, creative vigor, suspensefulness of plot, depth of characters, vitality of theme, excitement of climax, satisfaction of ending, or any other combination of dimensions of value which we are expected to boil down through some fabulous alchemy into a single digit.

[Anders Franklin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very thorough biography. I am actually quite stunned by the life of Sagan. Keay succeeds very well in presenting a nuanced and colorful image of Sagan and his surroundings. At times I was irritated because of some uncalled for cliffhangers, but in retrospect this is something I forgive.

[Rob Brethouwer · Rating 4 out of 5]

He explained incredibly complex subject matter in a way that not only made the subject matter understandable but also fascinating. He made people want to take the next step in learning a topic at a deeper level. That was his genius.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Biography of the late astronomer who popularized science with the "Cosmos" PBS series in the 1980s. A bit too dense in the science sections for this non-scientist, but overall a decent read if you want to know more about Sagan.

[Joyce F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the subject and his story. The book was tedious: long and VERY dry spots throughout, with otherwise interesting detail told in uninteresting ways. A tough read, I'm sorry to say.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written biography of the scientist. I thought it was an amazing story and richly detailed. I learned a lot about the man!

[Huner]

i think that you have to read this book

[David Corleto-Bales · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoughtful, extensively researched book on a joyous and brilliant life.

[Danielle Page · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book is really compelling