E. O. Wilson: Biophilia, The Diversity of Life, Naturalist (LOA #340)

by Edward O. Wilson, David Quammen (Editor)

Overview

A landmark collected edition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author and world-renowned biologist, illuminating the marvels of biodiversity in a time of climate crisis and mass extinction.

Library of America presents three environmental classics from two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner E. O. Wilson, a masterful writer-scientist whose graceful prose is equal to his groundbreaking discoveries. These books illuminate the evolution and complex beauty of our imperiled ecosystems and the flora, fauna, and civilization they sustain, even as they reveal the personal evolution of one of the greatest scientific minds of our age. Here are the lyrical, thought-provoking essays of Biophilia, a field biologist's reflections on the manifold meanings of wilderness. Here too is his magisterial, dazzlingly informative Diversity of Life: a sweeping tour of global biodiversity and a prophetic call to preserve the planet, filled on every page with little-known creatures, unique habitats, and fascinating ecological detail. Also included is Wilson's moving autobiography, Naturalist. Following him from his outdoor boyhood in Alabama and the Florida panhandle to the rainforests of Surinam and New Guinea—from his first discoveries as a young ant specialist to his emergence as a champion of conservation and rewilding—it rounds out a collection that will inspire wonder, curiosity, and love for a natural world now rapidly disappearing. Thirty-two pages of photographs and numerous illustrations accompany these works, which are introduced by David Quammen, one of America's leading science and nature writers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781598536799
Publisher:	Library of America
Publication date:	03/23/2021
Pages:	1150
Sales rank:	515,121
Product dimensions:	5.15(w) x 8.13(h) x 1.26(d)

About the Author

One of the world's preeminent natural scientists, Edward O. Wilson (1929–2021) grew up in south Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, where he spent his boyhood exploring the region's forests and swamps, collecting snakes, butterflies, and ants—the latter to become his lifelong specialty. The author of more than twenty books, including the Pulitzer Prize winners On Human Nature (1979) and The Ants (1991), Wilson was a professor at Harvard University for more than forty years. In retirement he established the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation, which advances the "Half-Earth Project," Wilson's vision for a healed world of restored wilderness.

David Quammen, one of America's leading science and nature writers, is the author of more than a dozen books including The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction (1996), Spillover: Animal Infection and the Next Human Pandemic (2012), and The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life (2018). He lives in Bozeman, Montana.

Table of Contents

Introduction David Quammen xv

Biophilia

Prologue 5

Bernhardsdorp 7

The Superorganism 25

The Time Machine 38

The Bird of Paradise 47

The Poetic Species 52

The Serpent 74

The Right Place 91

The Conservation Ethic 106

Surinam 125

Acknowledgments 129

The Diversity of Life

Violent Nature, Resilient Life

1 Storm over the Amazon 137

2 Krakatau 149

3 The Great Extinctions 158

Biodiversity Rising

4 The Fundamental Unit 169

5 New Species 184

6 The Forces of Evolution 208

7 Adaptive Radiation 227

8 The Unexplored Biosphere 267

9 The Creation of Ecosystems 299

10 Biodiversity Reaches the Peak 319

The Human Impact

11 The Life and Death of Species 353

12 Biodiversity Threatened 383

13 Unmined Riches 425

14 Resolution 456

15 The Environmental Ethic 489

Glossary 503

Acknowledgments 523

Credits 529

Naturalist

Prelude 535

Part I Daybreak in Alabama

1 Paradise Beach 539

2 Send Us the Boy 546

3 A Light in the Corner 559

4 A Magic Kingdom 569

5 To Do My Duty 579

6 Alabama Dreaming 594

7 The Hunters 607

8 Good-Bye to the South 626

9 Orizaba 637

Part II Storyteller

10 The South Pacific 655

11 The Forms of Things Unknown 683

12 The Molecular Wars 700

13 Islands Are the Key 718

14 The Florida Keys Experiment 735

15 Ants 753

16 Attaining Sociobiology 775

17 The Sociobiology Controversy 794

18 Biodiversity, Biophilia 814

Acknowledgments 825

Chronology 829

Note on the Texts 839

Notes 841

Index 915

Editorial Reviews

"This new addition to the still expanding Library of America series (his is volume #340) presents not only the 'essential Wilson,' if you will, but also a superb introduction to some of the most significant discoveries and concepts in modern natural history—all presented in Prof. Wilson’s delightfully learned yet invitingly down-to-earth prose." —The Well-read Naturalist

From the Publisher