![]() In 1854 Wallace decided to redeem his earlier failure in South America by traveling to the Malay Archipelago (today known as Maritime Southeast Asia). ![]() Although 750 copies were published, one-third of them remained unsold nearly a decade later. It received a favorable review in the Annals and Magazine of Natural History, but privately, leading scientists like botanist Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865) and fellow explorer-botanist Richard Spruce (1817-1893) were less impressed. ![]() His book on palms was published at his own expense and had a small print run of 250 copies. Unfortunately, during his journey home, the ship, Helen, loaded with flammable copaiba, balsam, and rubber, caught fire, destroying all his private collections of birds, insects, live animals, notes, sketchbooks, and just about every record of his four years in South America.ĭespite his losses Wallace managed to publish two books in 1853 about his time on the South American continent: Palms of the Amazon and Rio Negro and A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro. When he read the anonymous Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation in 1845 (now known to have been written by Robert Chambers ), a book that sparked his passion to unlock the secrets of transmutation, he went off with Bates to explore South America from 1848 to 1852. It is, therefore, likely that a considerable segment of the reading public needs some introduction to a man inextricably intertwined with the British naturalist who needs no introduction at all - Charles Darwin.īorn on January 8, 1823, in Usk, an obscure English-Welsh border town, Wallace had little formal schooling, learned surveying from his brother William, taught himself botany and entomology, and with his new-found beetle collecting friend, Walter Henry Bates (1825-1892), became captivated by the wonders of nature. Standard college textbooks on the subject barely mention him. ĭespite the notability of Alfred Russel Wallace in his own day, he remains a comparatively obscure figure in the history of biology. Nature’s Prophet is currently on sale here for $26, a substantial saving from the list price of $44.95. Professor Flannery is a Fellow with Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture. Editor’s note : We are delighted to welcome the new book Nature’s Prophet by science historian Michael Flannery with a series of excerpts.
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