The Heretic in Darwin's Court: The Life of Alfred Russel Wallace

637 Pages·2004·4.07 MB·English

by  Ross A. Slotten

Slotten_FM 4/15/04 10:46 AM Page i
(cid:2)
the heretic darwin’s court
in
acknowledgments—xi
Introduction—1
chapter 1
Origins ofa Heretic—
chapter 2
The Struggle for Existence—
chapter 3
A Daring Plan—
chapter 4
Travels on the Amazon ...—
chapter 5
...and the Rio Negro—
chapter 6
Disaster at Sea ...and a Civilized Interlude—
chapter 7
The Malay Archipelago—
chapter 8
The Mechanism Revealed—
chapter 9
Beautiful Dreamer—
Slotten_FM 4/15/04 10:46 AM Page ii
Slotten_FM 4/15/04 10:46 AM Page iii
the heretic darwin’s court
in
(cid:2)
The Life of Alfred Russel Wallace
ross a. slotten
columbia university press new york
Slotten_FM 4/15/04 10:46 AM Page iv
Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
Copyright © 2004 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Slotten, Ross A.
The heretic in Darwin’s court : the life of Alfred Russel Wallace / Ross A. Slotten.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN 0-231-13010-4 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Wallace, Alfred Russel, 1823–1913. 2. Naturalists—England—Biography.
3. Spiritualists—England—Biography. 4. Socialists—England—Biography. I. Title.
QH31.W2S535 2004
508'.092—dc22
[B]
2003068833
Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper.
Printed in the United States of America
Designed by Chang Jae Lee
c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Slotten_FM 4/15/04 10:46 AM Page v
(cid:2)
Contents
acknowledgments—vii
Introduction—1
chapter 1
Origins ofa Heretic—
chapter 2
The Struggle for Existence—
chapter 3
A Daring Plan—
chapter 4
Travels on the Amazon ...—
chapter 5
...And the Rio Negro—
chapter 6
Disaster at Sea ...and a Civilized Interlude—
chapter 7
The Malay Archipelago—
chapter 8
The Mechanism Revealed—
chapter 9
Beautiful Dreamer—
Slotten_FM 4/15/04 10:46 AM Page vi
(cid:3) (cid:4)
vi contents
chapter 10
A Turn Toward the Unknowable—
chapter 11
The Olympian Heights and the Beginnings ofthe Fall—
chapter 12
Wallace and The Descent of Man—
chapter 13
The Descent ofWallace—
chapter 14
The War on Spiritualism—
chapter 15
Phoenix from the Ashes—
chapter 16
To the Land ofEpidemic Delusions—
chapter 17
The New Nemesis—
chapter 18
Thoroughly Unpopular Causes—
chapter 19
Satisfaction,Retrospection,and Work—
chapter 20
A National Treasure Celebrated—
genealogy of the wallace family—494
notes—497
biographical index—549
select bibliography—559
index—577
Slotten_FM 4/15/04 10:46 AM Page vii
(cid:2)
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I would like to thank Ben Williams and his staff
at the library of the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago for their
early support of my project. As an independent scholar, I will always be in-
debted to Ben Williams, who provided me with an invaluable letter of intro-
duction that opened doors that might otherwise have remained closed to me.
The writing of this book was indeed a journey. Along the way, I met or
corresponded with a number of people who provided me with advice as well
as access to original materials from which to work. I would like to single out
Gina Douglas, librarian of the Linnean Society of London; A. Tatham, keep-
er of the collections of the Royal Geographical Society, London; Leslie Price,
archivist of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew; Stella Brecknell, librarian of the
Hope Entomological Collections at the Oxford University Museum of Nat-
ural History; John Handford, former archivist and librarian of Macmillan,
London; Anne Barrett, college archivist of the Imperial College of Science,
Technology and Medicine, London; Paul Cooper, assistant zoological li-
brarian of the Natural History Museum, London; Robert W. O’Hara, an in-
dependent researcher who combed through the holdings of the Public
Record Office for useful tidbits; Michael Palmer, archivist of the Zoological
Society of London; Katharine Taylor, principal archivist of the Manchester
Archives and Local Studies, Manchester Central Library; and Adam Perkins,
Royal Greenwich Observatory archivist in the Department of Manuscripts
and university archives at Cambridge University. All these individuals were
unfailingly courteous when I repeatedly contacted them either by e-mail or
in person for anything related to Wallace. I would also like to thank Lady de
Bellaigue, at the library of Windsor Palace, for providing me with copies of
letters to King Edward VII and Michele Minto, at the Wellcome Institute in
London, for obtaining many of the photographs used in the text.
In the United States, librarians and archivists at the following libraries
provided me with photocopies of letters to and from or relating to Wallace,
not all of which were used in the final version of this biography: Dittrick
Slotten_FM 4/15/04 10:46 AM Page viii
(cid:3) (cid:4)
viii acknowledgments
Medical History Center of Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland;
Ernst Mayr and Houghton Libraries of Harvard University, Cambridge,
Mass.; Milton S. Eisenhower Library of Johns Hopkins University, Balti-
more; Yale University library, New Haven, Conn.; Harry Ransom Humani-
ties Research Center of the University of Texas, Austin; Bookfellows Foun-
dation of Knox College, Galesburg, Ill.; American Philosophical Society,
Philadelphia; John Hay Library of Brown University, Providence, R.I.; and
Smithsonian Institution Libraries, Washington, D.C.
I am especially grateful to Kenneth Parker, an indefatigable champion of
Wallace, who gave me a tour of Wallace’s haunts in Hertsford and who in-
troduced me to Richard Wallace, one of Wallace’s two grandsons, who kind-
ly allowed me to examine memorabilia not yet in the hands of archivists or
librarians. Throughout the research phase of this book, he encouraged me to
forge ahead, delighted by the appearance of another (especially American)
aficionado of his grandfather’s life and works.
There were other Virgils who served as guides at critical junctures: Mark
R. D. Seaward of the University of Bradford; Leonard G. Wilson, professor
emeritus of the history of medicine at the University of Minnesota, Min-
neapolis; Richard Milner, senior editor of Natural History Magazine;
Michael Pearson, who laboriously downloaded transcriptions of Wallace’s
Malay and American journals from an ancient computer; Bruce Evensen
(my cousin), professor of journalism at De Paul University, Chicago; and
Sam Fleishman, whose expert advice and guidance were indispensable to
me. A number of friends helped me shape my book by reading it at various
stages, among which I should mention John Davidson, Neel French,
Matthew Lambert, Kevin Murphy, Mohamed Salem, and John Vranicar.
Last but not least, I must thank Robin Smith and Irene Pavitt at Colum-
bia University Press, whose enthusiasm and attentiveness made publication
possible; Henry Krawitz, for the unrewarding but Herculean task of recon-
ciling the text, notes, and bibliography; and Sara Lippincott, a supreme edi-
tor, who meticulously scoured my manuscript for consistency and clarity
and gave me the hope that this was a worthy undertaking.
Slotten_FM 4/15/04 10:46 AM Page ix
(cid:2)
the heretic darwin’s court
in