NOTE: Today’s book review was inspired by another book entitled Letters. That book was a memoir of scientist and storyteller Dr. Oliver Sacks, told through a lifetime of his personal correspondence with friends, family, patients and many other interesting people. Over the course of his letter writing, Dr. Sacks often made reference to the written works of others. Today’s book is one such work that he referenced.
The Context in Which Dr. Sacks Made Reference to The Autobiography of Charles Darwin (Editied by his Grand-Daughter Nora Barlow)
The Autobiography of Charles Darwin is mentioned on page no. 29 of the book Letters by Dr. Sacks. He mentions this autobiography in a letter to his parents, Elise and Samuel Sacks, dated October 15, 1960. This particular letter was written only four days after he had written to his friend Jonathan Miller about the joy with which he was exploring the sexual side of what San Francisco had to offer and of his search for poet Thom Gunn. Today’s letter is a study in contrast. It covers very mundane topics and makes no reference at all to Dr. Sacks’ sexual lifestyle, which was still a secret that he kept from his family in England.
“Last weekend I spent idly by myself, lying in the sun and reading in the immense Golden Gate Park all Saturday (I finished Henry James’ short stories and devoured the autobiography of Charles Darwin).”
A Brief Outline of the Plot of The Autobiography of Charles Darwin (Edited by his Grand-Daughter Nora Barlow)
Editorial Note: At a gift giving occasion in this past year I was given a book, which was a template of sorts, that I was to fill in myself with the details of my own life story. My eldest daughter gave this gift to me. She is a frequent reader of my posts and has often discovered facts about me that she had never known until I had typed them out and shared them with the world through my blog. This book, with its guided, chronological Q. & A. format, was meant to draw out my memories while I am still relatively in control of my faculties. I am happy to report that I am close to completing the rough draft portion of this exercise and will be soon ready to polish up my autobiography in a more coherent and complete form in the very near future.
I bring this up because reading The Autobiography of Charles Darwin reminded me very much of what I am presently doing with my own life story. This book was written in Darwin’s own folksy words as a record of his life for his five children to read. Consequently, there is a warmth to the reminiscences as he travels through the various periods of his life. This book was not a weighty or ponderous look at his life through the lens of academia at all. Instead, it possessed the charm of a father telling tales to his children by a roaring fire before sending them neatly off to their beds for a good night’s sleep. Although Charles Darwin is most known for having developed the Theory of Evolution, as detailed in his groundbreaking book On The Origin of Species, Darwin omits adding in the details of his voyage of discovery on the H.M.S. Beagle on which he made many of the observations that helped him to set out his theories, telling his children that they can easily find the details of how he did what he did in that more famous book if they wanted to know more. In doing so, Darwin spares the reader a rehash of his actual theories and spends more time describing the events that brought him to be on the H.M.S. Beagle, the family dynamics at play in his father’s initial opposition to the voyage, as well as the distress he felt for his family at the impactful nature of the political opposition to his work once On The Origin of Species was formally published. Darwin speaks of the joy-filled days of his youth, his aimlessness during his school years and how his love of “shooting” led him to immerse himself in the world of nature. Darwin speaks of his fellow naturalists and of the intellectuals who helped him along the way by offering advice to him on his work or who helped point Darwin in certain directions because of the work that they specialized in. Overall, the message that Charles Darwin delivered again and again to his children was to enjoy what you do as your life’s work, to find good in those you surround yourself with and, most importantly, to trust your instincts and always to be true to who you are at the core of your being.
My Thoughts on The Autobiography of Charles Darwin (for what that is worth)
I enjoyed this book. I admit to having been mentally prepared for a ponderous, academically detailed examination of Charles Darwin and his theories. However, I was greeted by the folksy charm of a man who, instead, preferred simple words and explanations and reminiscences. The Autobiography of Charles Darwin is a book that I would almost consider in the category of a summer read, if you know what I mean? I read the complete book in a matter of a few days.
This book gave the impression that Charles Darwin was a man who possessed much warmth, charm and tenderness, especially when it came to his wife, his children and his peers. It also showed how aware he was of the political implications of his theories and how the publication of On The Origin of Species would not only change his own life forever but also the lives of those he loved through their association with him. For anyone unaware of who Charles Darwin was and why he is considered one of the most influential and impactful scientists of all time, the short strokes are simply to know that Darwin’s theories on evolution, natural selection and the idea of the survival of the fittest being the driving force in the history of the world contradicted those beliefs held by people who put their faith in the words found in the Bible. There are many examples in our modern world where religious and scientific adherents find themselves on the opposite sides of important issues. The politics of believing in evolution put Darwin on the opposite side of many who believed in the Word of God and/or who used the politics of religious belief to maintain control over how our society functions. Those philosophic castle walls are not so easily breached, even to this very day, despite the enormous amount of evidence that Darwin had amassed in defence of his work.
As mentioned above, The Autobiography of Charles Darwin is a love letter to his children. It is a book that acts as his way of explaining to them how he came to be this larger-than-life character, why science became such an important factor in who he was and how he came to trust that what he was witnessing in the natural world of England and the Galapagos Islands was true and that he was duty-bound to eventually publish his findings. This book also clearly describes the price Darwin (and those he loved most) paid for making public his trust in the scientific nature of his discoveries. In truth, Darwin had the outline of On The Origin of Species completed almost twenty years before this groundbreaking book was ever published. Darwin always knew that the political pushback to his theories would be considerable. He knew that powerful forces would align against him and, indirectly, against those closest to him. He was correct in those assumptions. In fact, Darwin might never have ever published his work if not for the fact that a fellow naturalist named Alfred Wallace independently discovered the theory of natural selection for himself and was set to present his findings in 1858. Darwin was allowed to view Dr. Wallace’s work prior to publication by Wallace, himself. This caused Darwin to realize that his theories were set to come out, one way or the other, so he co-authored a report with Wallace and then, published On The Origin of Species on his own after a twenty year wait. Suffice to say, the world has never been the same since. The publication of On The Origin of Species did as much, or more, than almost any other book to show the world that its history was actually built on a foundation of scientific fact, as opposed to the views of the puppet-like control of an omnipotent deity in the sky. His example set the stage for many others to follow in his wake. One such person was a young man in San Francisco named Oliver Sacks.
We all have our heroes and role models in life. For many who ended up choosing a life in the world of science and medicine, Charles Darwin is a “Mount Rushmore” figure for them. It is one thing to have the intellectual brilliance to see scientific connections that no one has ever borne witness to before but, it is an entirely different thing to publish these discoveries, fully aware of the political fallout that is surely to come on a level that is difficult for many of us to even begin to comprehend. In recent times, one has to only think of the life of a man like Dr. Fauci during the COVID pandemic while working from within the Trump administration, to know how hard it remains to put science into the forefront of societal conversations, damn the consequences, because it is the right thing to do as evidenced by actual discoveries that have been and are still being made. I have no doubt that people like Dr. Fauci (a few years ago) and Oliver Sacks (back in the 1960s) both found great courage in the example set by people like Charles Darwin over one hundred years ago. For what it is worth, I fall on the side of science and, as such, Charles Darwin is someone I consider to be important and worth admiring. Consequently, I enjoyed The Autobiography of Charles Darwin and recommend it as a light and breezy look inside the humanity of this great man of science. If you are so inclined as to read this book, enjoy.
The link to the official websites for Charles Darwin can be found here, here and here.
***The Autobiography of Charles Darwin (Edited by his Grand-Daughter Nora Barlow) can be read online for free at the first website listed here. Simply scroll over the “books” on the bookshelf until you find it. Enjoy.
The link to the official website for Dr. Oliver Sacks can be found here.
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