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Darwin's Moon: A Biography of Alfred Russel Wallace
x 261p hardback with illustrated jacket, jacket spine has sticker trace/scuff, front pastedown has rather nice London Transport Library sticker, clean and firm copy, this copy published in the year 1966
261 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1966
About the author
Amabel Williams-Ellis
97 books3 followersAmabel Williams-Ellis was an English writer, critic, and early member of the Bloomsbury Group. Over the course of her life, Amabel Williams-Ellis wrote more than 40 books. These included novels, books for children, and histories. She wrote regularly for periodicals, and edited multiple volumes of folk legends, fairy tales, and science fiction. She was significantly inspired by the writer and explorer Mary Kingsley, who she had met in childhood, and who she described as 'an anthropologist before anthropology'. The Times described Amabel Williams-Ellis as someone who 'wrote books to find things out, and seemed prepared to take on anything.'
She died on 27 August 1984, at the age of 90. Shortly before her death, she published a memoir: “All Stracheys Are Cousins”.
She died on 27 August 1984, at the age of 90. Shortly before her death, she published a memoir: “All Stracheys Are Cousins”.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 23, 2018
Non-fiction. Account of a great man's life. Very readable, well structured.
Wallace was "the other Darwin". Darwin himself always showed respect for Wallace, said that the theory of evolution by natural selection should not be called "Darwinism".
Even if Wallace had NOT independently come up with the same theory as Darwin did, his story would be a fascinating read, especially when told as well as Williams-Ellis does it.
Not only does his story introduce us to a remarkable man, it sheds light on a remarkable era; he lived from 1823 – 1913, and had extraordinary adventures, first in the Amazon, then in Indonesia.
His theories (plural, note) are covered reasonably clearly, but the author doesn't spend too much time down that rabbit hole. The book is more about "life and times".
It paints a picture of a seemingly very "nice" man, an incredibly hard working man, in spite of setbacks and difficulties which would de-rail many lives... and yet flaws (he was never very good with money) are not air-brushed out.
As this is Goodreads, I should also mention that Wallace himself wrote a Good Read... today sometimes known simply as "The Malay Archipelago", originally it went under the more splendid title of "The Malay Archipelago, the Land of the Orang-Utan and the Bird of Paradise; A Narrative of Travel, With Studies of Man and Nature " (Have a look at the Wikipedia entry on that book, which summarizes the contents, and then ask yourself if it would be fun to learn a bit more about a man who could, as one of his "lesser" achievements write a book of that scope. ("Just for fun" (not, actually... he had a reason), he includes as an appendix listing "9 words (black, white, fire, water, large, small, nose, tongue, tooth) in 59 of the languages encountered in the archipelago, and 117 words in 33 of those languages" (thank you Wikipedia).
Oh.. and he also proved that the earth isn't flat.
Wallace was "the other Darwin". Darwin himself always showed respect for Wallace, said that the theory of evolution by natural selection should not be called "Darwinism".
Even if Wallace had NOT independently come up with the same theory as Darwin did, his story would be a fascinating read, especially when told as well as Williams-Ellis does it.
Not only does his story introduce us to a remarkable man, it sheds light on a remarkable era; he lived from 1823 – 1913, and had extraordinary adventures, first in the Amazon, then in Indonesia.
His theories (plural, note) are covered reasonably clearly, but the author doesn't spend too much time down that rabbit hole. The book is more about "life and times".
It paints a picture of a seemingly very "nice" man, an incredibly hard working man, in spite of setbacks and difficulties which would de-rail many lives... and yet flaws (he was never very good with money) are not air-brushed out.
As this is Goodreads, I should also mention that Wallace himself wrote a Good Read... today sometimes known simply as "The Malay Archipelago", originally it went under the more splendid title of "The Malay Archipelago, the Land of the Orang-Utan and the Bird of Paradise; A Narrative of Travel, With Studies of Man and Nature " (Have a look at the Wikipedia entry on that book, which summarizes the contents, and then ask yourself if it would be fun to learn a bit more about a man who could, as one of his "lesser" achievements write a book of that scope. ("Just for fun" (not, actually... he had a reason), he includes as an appendix listing "9 words (black, white, fire, water, large, small, nose, tongue, tooth) in 59 of the languages encountered in the archipelago, and 117 words in 33 of those languages" (thank you Wikipedia).
Oh.. and he also proved that the earth isn't flat.
Displaying 1 of 1 review