Carl Sagan: A Life - Hardcover

Davidson, Keay

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471252867 ISBN 13: 9780471252863

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 1999

Synopsis

Carl Sagan, who died in December 1996, is one of the few scientists whose name has become a household word all around the globe. The first man to recognise and name the "greenhouse effect", Sagan was a force behind the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. This is a behind-the-scenes look at Sagan's life and career in the field of space exploration and the evolution of life. Based on interviews with Sagan's family and colleagues, including his widow, his first wife, and his son, it reveals a roller-coaster of successes and failures, characterising a complicated personality whose life was one of continuous struggle.

About this title

Review:

The business and science publisher John Wiley isn't famous for its biographies, but they've landed a corker with Keay Davidson's life of Carl Sagan, science's greatest showman of recent years, the man who first concieved of "nuclear winter" and who shaped the attitudes of a generation with his groundbreaking TV science series Cosmos.

Sagan stands at the cusp where the technocratic and militaristic ambitions of the 50s meet the ecology movement. Keay Davidson treads a difficult middle course with gusto: Sagan wanted nothing less than to refashion astronomy and the life sciences in the image of his own imagination. Sagan believed that where life can in principle arise it always will, that many more worlds are habitable by some form of life than we imagine, and that evolution favours wild diversity. Not surprisingly it was Sagan's taste for science fiction that shaped his philosophy--a literature that accords with Sagan's own liberal education by building a speculative bridge between CP Snow's "two cultures": the sciences and the humanities.

Sagan was in many ways not a nice man. Nor was he by any means the best scientist. Davidson pulls no punches but this remains a generous and humane portrait. Davidson's journalist style is not top-flight, but he handles a vast amount of often first-hand research with skill and economy. In a market flooded with wordy and massive "first volumes" of never-to-be-finished lives Carl Sagan is a breath of fresh air from an unlikely source. --Simon Ings

Review:

"Davidson writes superbly, and this biography is extremely hard to put down..." -- The Observatory, August 2000

"well written and well researched. In years to come, this book will serve as an excellent reminder of a man who interest in new worlds was at least as great as Vespuccis." -- Earth Space Review, Vol 9/4, 2000

- "... extraodinarily revealing biography of the astronomer ...." -- Sunday Telegraph, 18.10.99

- "..offers a richly detailed and captivating documentary of the story behind this very public figure and the people and events surrounding him." -- The Guardian, 20th November 1999

- "Although this far from the definitive biography, it is an enjoyable read..." -- The Independent, 2nd November 1999

- "Davidson has crafted an excellent and thoroughly readable biography of one of the most compelling figures of modern science." -- Chemical Engineer, 13th December 1999

- "Davidson's Sagan promotes useful biography." -- New Scientist, 6th November 1999

- "Keay Davidson, a science writer, has surveyed Sagan's life and provided a fascinating view of this multifaceted individual. ... The book provides a revealing profile of an individual who had a lasting effect on the way space science is carried out and funded. .... It is interesting and illustrative for readers to learn from Davidson's biography how Sagan evolved and how his influence formed and grew." -- Times HIgher Educational Supplement, 21st January 2000

- "This gripping, thorough biography explores the relationships and experiences which moulded a man who's life was dominated bythe big mysteries - How did life begin? Does life inhabit other worlds?" -- Focus, December 1999

About this edition

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0471252867
• ISBN 13: 9780471252863
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 576