RICHARD RHODES is the author of twenty-six books including The Making of the Atomic Bomb, which won the Pulitzer Prize in Nonfiction, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He graduated from Yale University and has received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. He has been a visiting scholar at Harvard, MIT, and Stanford, and a host and correspondent for documentaries on American public television. He lives outside San Francisco with his wife, Dr. Ginger Rhodes, a clinical psychologist.
“It has been an honor to know Ed Wilson. His life and work have
inspired so many—scientist and layperson, alike. Richard Rhodes’s
Scientist is a wonderful introduction to one of the great thinkers
and observers of our age.”
—Paul Simon
“An impressive account of one of the 20th century’s most prominent
biologists, for whom the natural world is ‘a sanctuary and a realm
of boundless adventure; the fewer the people in it, the
better.’”
—The New York Times Book Review, "5 New Biographies To Read This
Season"
“Wilson’s life and substantial accomplishments—many have called him
the “natural heir” to Darwin—are ripe topics for exploration, and
particularly important as we continue to confront the climate
crisis’ effects on biodiversity."
—Lit Hub, "Most Anticipated Books of 2021"
“Pulitzer–winner Rhodes (The Making of the Atomic Bomb) does
justice to ‘one of the...greatest biologists of the twentieth
century’ in this brilliant biography…Rhodes depicts Wilson as a
tireless field scientist at a time when the general belief was that
the future of biological discoveries was in the laboratory, and as
a proponent who popularized sociobiology, and as a Pulitzer-winner
for his books The Ants and On Human Nature. The author leaves no
doubt as to Wilson’s broad impact on science and the public’s
perceptions of nature, without ever veering into hagiography. This
is a must-read.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review
“Esteemed biographer and historian Rhodes warmly portrays Wilson as
an ambitious and accomplished biologist, a passionate and
influential advocate for identifying all life forms and preserving
half of Earth as natural habitat, and a prolific, Pulitzer
Prize–winning writer…Rhodes also illuminates Wilson's insights into
biodiversity, biophilia, altruism, and the nature of science…His
many admirable attributes include a genuine inquisitiveness, sense
of wonder, and deep concern for all life, from insects to people,
and our planet. Rhodes' biography makes a fine companion to
Wilson's Tales from the Ant World (2020).”
—Booklist, starred review
“Rhodes (who won a Pulitzer for The Making of the Atomic Bomb)
devotes as much time to Wilson’s remarkable life as to his
remarkable achievements as a biologist, making this biography a joy
to read.”
—The Washington Post, "10 Books To Read in November"
“Richard Rhodes. . .himself a Pulitzer Prize winner, has produced a
well-crafted book on the unlikely trajectory of ‘a polite,
soft-spoken product of Gulf Coast Alabama, the first in his family
to graduate from college’. . .Rhodes says of Wilson that he ‘never
stopped growing in knowledge or expanding in range.’ What a life.”
–Yale Alumni Magazine
Ask a Question About this Product More... |