Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae

by Gale E. Christianson

Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae is both the biography of an extraordinary human being and the story of the greatest quest in the history of astronomy since the Copernican revolution. The book is a revealing portrait of scientific genius, an incisive engaging history of ideas, and a shimmering evocation of what we see when gazing at the stars.

Born in 1889 and reared in the village of Marshfield, Missouri, Edwin Powell Hubble-star athlete, Rhodes Scholar, military officer, and astronomer- became one of the towering figures in twentieth-century science. Hubble worked with the great 100-inch Hooker telescope at California's Mount Wilson Observatory and made a series of discoveries that revolutionized humanity's vision of the cosmos. In 1923 he was able to confirm the existence of other nebulae (now known to be galaxies) beyond our own Milky Way. By the end of the decade, Hubble had proven that the universe is expanding, thus laying the very cornerstone of the big bang theory of creation. It was Hubble who developed the elegant scheme by which the galaxies are classified as ellipticals and spirals, and it was Hubble who first provided reliable evidence that the universe is homogeneous, the same in all directions as far as the telescope can see.

An incurable Anglophile with a penchant for tweed jackets and English briars, Hubble, together with his brilliant and witty wife, Grace Burke, became a fixture in Hollywood society in the 1930s and 40s. They counted among their friends Charlie Chaplin, the Marx brothers, Anita Loos, Aldous and Maria Huxley, Walt Disney, Helen Hayes, and William Randolph Hearst. Albert Einstein, a frequent visitor to Southern California, called Hubble's work "beautiful" and modified his equations on relativity to account for the discovery that the cosmos is expanding.

Genres: Biography, Astronomy, Science, Nonfiction, History Of Science, Space, History

220 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 1995

About the author

Gale E. Christianson is retired from Indiana State University, where he served as Distinguished Professor of the College of Arts and Sciences and Professor of History. He is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Huntington Library Fellow, and the recipient of numerous other grants and awards. Christianson lives in Terre Haute, where he continues to research and write.

Reviews

[Duane Nickell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent biography of Hubble. Well-written and very readable, although I should mention that I have a degree in astronomy. Non-scientists should have very little trouble with this book; it is a popular biography, not a scientific treatise. My only mild criticisms: 1. There's a bit too much information on the family at the beginning; and 2. There's a little too much on Hubble's social life near the end. Nevertheless, I could hardly put the book down!

[Rob Sedgwick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is out of print I think (I read it on Open Library), but doesn't deserve to be if it is, being a solid biography of America's foremost astronomer of the 20th century. It's always difficult in science biographies to get the right balance between the person and the science, but this is about right for me.

[Kristine · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a complete but fairly impersonal account of the great astronomer's life. I was very disappointed to see a major factual misstep in the first half of the book - a reference to the "permanently dark side" of the Moon.

[Irvin Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book by my former professor.

[Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great history of astronomy and celebrity social life of 20's and 30's.

[Philip Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating to see all that is involved in the making of the person and scientific advances.

[Jonathan Watts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent biography that tells about both the man and his work. Really great read.