Book Review - Radical by Nature: The Revolutionary Life of Alfred Russel Wallace - Princeton University Press

 

".....the antecedently incredible may nevertheless be true."

Alfred Russel Wallace

     This sprawling, expansive, at times provocative work, by a renowned Wallace scholar is a joy to read from the first page to the last. Buckle up for a long ride, however; it clocks in at 416 pages of diminutive typeface, including the coda.

     But what a ride it is!

     I think it is fair to say that the general reader is for the most part blissfully unaware of Alfred Russel Wallace and the landmark contribution he made to biology. I suspect that even some biologists are only vaguely cognizant of Wallace - such is the depth of ignorance about one of the giants of history, always overshadowed by that other renowned chap, Charles Darwin. That is tough competition indeed!

     Yet even though Wallace came to the same conclusions about evolution as Darwin, at roughly the same time, and was in many ways instrumental in Darwin publishing his explosive and controversial treatise, he always conceded priority to Darwin. In fact his admiration for Darwin never wavered and he championed "Mr. Darwin" right up to the end, notwithstanding that he could rightly lay equal claim to the conclusions Darwin had reached.

     As a young man, Wallace dreamed of adventure, and with his friend Henry Walter Bates (he of the eponymous mimicry, Batesian Mimicry), embarked on a collecting expedition to South America. The obstacles, the hardships, the privation, the potentially deadly diseases would make tales of Indiana Jones seem like a walk in the park. To cap it all off, on the journey home to Britain the ship on which Wallace was travelling burst into flames due to incorrectly stored flammable cargo, and the vessel had to be abandoned. All of Wallace's collections and his notes, and even live animals were lost.

     This would be enough for the average individual to forswear collecting expeditions forever, but Wallace, ever a glass half-full kind of fellow, was made of sterner stuff, and it was not long after his return to England that he dreamed again of foreign shores, and his thoughts turned to the East. Having already been accepted into the élite scientific circle of the times, he had developed a certain cachet as he embarked on his journey in 1854, an adventure that would keep him away from Britain for seven years.

      Along the way, he discovered thousands of organisms previously unknown to science, and by  careful study of geology and faunal distribution established what has become known as Wallace Line. He maintained an active correspondence with British luminaries, including Darwin, all the while suffering the most dreadful conditions one might imagine. At times his feet were so afflicted by biting and boring insects that he was unable to walk. Nothing, however, would deter him from his explorations, neither privations nor shipwreck, not even the possibility of being driven ashore in the territory of headhunters.

     During this seven-year odyssey so many scientific theories were developed it is difficult to acknowledge that one man could come up with so much. His conclusions and theses were sent to his devoted agent, Samuel Stevens, who duly forwarded them to the appropriate scientific institutions, so Wallace's critical thinking was never far from the evolving dogma of the day. He did not leave aside questions of anthropology and sociology either. He was a polymath if ever there was one.

     On his return to England he was greeted with great acclaim and was accepted as a peer by the scientific establishment of the day. He married and enjoyed a happy domestic life, financial difficulties notwithstanding, all the while writing books, papers and garnering the adulation of the privileged class and hoi polloi alike.

     His foray into controversial beliefs such as spiritualism alarmed some of his learned colleagues, Darwin included, but Wallace was never one to be deterred from his own convictions. He became involved with issues of social justice, including championing the rights of women, all the while maintaining a prodigious output of books based on his travels and scientific theories, and embarked on a lengthy tour of the United States.

    In the last years of his life tributes and recognition poured in, even though Wallace was reluctant to accept many of them, only capitulating at the urging of his family, especially his daughter, Violet.

     He died just shy of his ninety-first birthday, vibrant, relevant and controversial to the end.

     The final chapter of the book concludes with the following words uttered by Thomas Jefferson on the death of the American naturalist, William Bartram.

"He is not gone. He remains everywhere around you. When you wish to find him you [need] only to look in his garden, and in his work, and in his green world."

"And there we find Alfred Russel Wallace still."

     I can do no better than to repeat them here.

Radical by Nature: The Revolutionary Life of Alfred Russel Wallace - Princeton University Press

James T. Costa

Hardcover - US$39.95 - £35 - ISBN: 9780691233796

552 pages - 6.13 x 9.25 inches (15.33 x 23.125 cm)

36 colour and 62 black-and-white illustrations, 3 maps

Publishing Date: 21 March, 2023.