The Heretic in Darwin's Court

"The heretic in Darwin's court explores the controversial life and scientific contributions of Alfred Russel Wallace - Victorian traveler, scientist, spiritualist, and co-discover with Charles Darwin of natural selection. After examining his early years, the biography turns to Wallace's twelve years of often harrowing travels in the western and eastern tropics, which place him in the pantheon of the greatest explorer-naturalists of the nineteenth century. Tracing step-by-step his discovery of natural selection - a piece of scientific detective work as revolutionary in its implications as the discovery of the structure of DNA - the book then follows the remaining fifty years of Wallace's eccentric and entertaining life. In addition to his divergence from Darwin on two fundamental issues - sexual selection and the origin of the human mind - he pursued topics that most scientific figures of his day conspicuously avoided, including spiritualism, phrenology, mesmerism, environmentalism, and life on Mars." "Although there may be disagreement about his conclusions, Wallace's intellectual investigations into the origins of life, consciousness, and the universe itself remain some of the most inspired scientific accomplishments in history. This biography casts new light on the life and work of Alfred Russel Wallace and the importance of his twenty-five-year relationship with Charles Darwin."--BOOK JACKET.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction, Spiritual. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.