biographylit

Wallace’s Malay Archipelago is a classic account of the travels of a Victorian naturalist through island Southeast Asia. It has been loved by readers ever since its publication in 1869. Despite numerous modern reprints with appreciative introductions, this is the first – and long overdue – annotated edition in English. This edition explains, updates and corrects the original text with an historical introduction and hundreds of explanatory notes. Wallace left hundreds of people, places, publications and species unidentified. He referred to most species only with the scientific name current at the time. Whenever available, the common names for species have been provided, and scientific names updated. The content of the book has never been thoroughly analysed and compared against other contemporary sources. It turns out that the book contains many errors. This includes not just incorrect dates and place names but some of the most remarkable anecdotes; for example, the dramatic claim that tigers “kill on an average a Chinaman every day” in Singapore or that a Dutch Governor General committed suicide by leaping from a waterfall on Celebes.
By correcting the text of the Malay Archipelago against Wallace’s letters and notebooks and other contemporary sources and by enriching it with modern identifications this edition reveals Wallace’s work as never before.

As a young child, Sarah Woods imagined going on epic voyages to exotic, illusory lands filled with bizarre creatures, intoxicating rhythms, vibrant colours and other-worldly forests. As soon as she was old enough she packed a bag and set off to see the world for real, leaving friends and family behind to fulfil her childhood dreams.
To journey solo through Central and South America was perhaps the ultimate challenge. Leaving the tourist traps behind, Sarah ventured into the wilderness, experiencing disease-ridden swamps, shark-infested waters and dense tracts of primary rainforest that are home to jaguars, anacondas and tusk-gnashing peccaries.
One animal, though, is truly emblematic of these forests – the awe-inspiring harpy eagle. But to see it you have to be prepared for serious hardship…
Facing gruelling, energy-sapping jungle conditions and constant challenges that saw her question the deepest and most intimate aspects of her life, Sarah’s intrepid travels on the trail of iconic wildlife took her through some of the toughest terrain imaginable, and led to encounters with extraordinary indigenous people of the forest, with whom she experienced kindnesses and cultures beyond her wildest dreams.
This book tells the incredible story of one woman’s adventure into the heart of the rainforest.

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), colleague of Charles Darwin, co-discoverer of the principle of natural selection, “father” of the field of evolutionary biogeography, vocal socialist and spiritualist, land reform theorist, intense social critic, etc., etc., was one of the most captivating figures of his time. Wallace began his professional career through two great natural history collecting expeditions, one to the Amazon and the other to the Australasian Archipelago; so successful were these that many observers would place him as the front-ranking field naturalist of all time. after he returned to England in 1862, however, his professional emphasis shifted toward writing. His published works included more than twenty books and close to a thousand other items: technical scientific papers, essays, commentaries, book reviews, and, not least, some three hundred letters to the Editor. It is in the last that his temperament comes out most strongly, and it is our privilege in the present work to reproduce more than two hundred of these, extending to all of his many intellectual passions. The philosopher Charles Peirce once wrote of Wallace that he “never wrote a dull line in his life, and couldn’t if he tried”, and the reader here can expect to be entertained accordingly.

Tom Pow’s beautiful, powerful poems examine the remarkable life of Thomas Watling. Watling was born in Dumfries in September 1762 and raised by a long-suffering maiden aunt. Convicted of forging Bank of Scotland one-guinea notes he was sentenced to fourteen years in the recently founded colony of Botany Bay in Australia. The first professional artist to arrive in the colony, Watling was seconded to its Surgeon General (and amateur naturalist) John White. His pioneer paintings of birds, animals and the landscape became some of the principal records of the earliest days of Australia. He was eventually pardoned, on 5 April 1797, and left Australia, eventually returning home to Dumfries. He died there, most likely in 1814.

The explorers includes the work of Wills, Giles, Leichhardt, Sturt, Eyre and Mitchell, and a host of other fascinating figures.

Acclaimed historian and biographer Paul Johnson turns his keen eye on Charles Darwin, the towering figure whose work continues to spur scientific debate. Johnson’s biography is already causing a stir on the pages of Slate and New Scientist, and has become a voice in the public discussion of evolution popularised by the likes of Richard Dawkins. Lay readers and academics alike will enjoy this concise and unflinching exploration of Charles Darwin, a genius whose discoveries add significant dimension to our understanding of his mind and his everlasting impact on our world. Also available in hardcover [stock id 36484].