Publisher's Synopsis
My Life a Record of Events and Opinions is an autobiography written by Alfred Russel Wallace, a British naturalist, explorer, and biologist who is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection. The book covers his life from his childhood in Wales to his travels and scientific expeditions in South America, Southeast Asia, and the Malay Archipelago. Wallace's experiences and observations of the natural world are interspersed with his opinions on social and political issues of his time, including women's suffrage, land reform, and the education system. The book provides insight into the life of a prominent 19th-century scientist and the intellectual climate of the era.1908. The autobiography of Wallace, an English naturalist, evolutionist, geographer, anthropologist, and social critic and theorist, who spent many years in the Malay Archipelago. On the basis of his observations of its flora and fauna he arrived at the theory of natural selection independent of Darwin; learning of their co-discovery led them to publish it in a joint paper. Early on he came into contact with supporters of the utopian socialist Robert Owen. In My Life he recollects that he even once heard Owen himself speak; from that point on he would describe himself in disciple terms. Two of his other essays from this early period are discussed in My Life. In the decade that followed, Wallace published over 150 works, including essays, letters, reviews, book notices, and monographs. His scientific writings would focus on natural selection, geographical distribution, and glaciology, and include three classic books: The Geographical Distribution of Animals, Tropical Nature, and Other Essays, and Island Life. Darwinism, while perhaps the highpoint of his later scientific work, was nevertheless only a very small part of it. Although social studies were absorbing more and more of his attention throughout the 1880s and 1890s, he was still left with plenty of time to crank out a steady stream of writings on more scientific subjects. During the 1890s alone he again published a total of over 150 works, dozens of these dealing with evolutionary, biogeographic, and physical geography subjects. In his later years he became a Spiritualist. See other titles by this author available from Kessinger Publishing.This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the old original and may contain some imperfections such as library marks and notations. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions, that are true to their original work.
