Life and Letters of Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker O.M., G.C.S.I.

The standard biography of the botanist, of which this first volume includes many letters written to Charles Darwin.

Joseph Dalton Hooker (Author), Leonard Huxley (Edited by)

9781108031004, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 1 May 2011

574 pages, 4 b/w illus. 1 map
21.6 x 14 x 3.2 cm, 0.72 kg

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911) was one of the most eminent botanists of the later nineteenth century. Educated at Glasgow, he developed his studies of plant life by examining specimens all over the world. After several successful scientific expeditions, first to the Antarctic and later to India, he was appointed to succeed his father as Director of the Botanical Gardens at Kew. Hooker was the first to hear of and support Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection, and over their long friendship the two scientists exchanged many letters. Another close friend was the scientist T. H. Huxley, and it was the latter's son, Leonard (1860–1933), who published this standard biography in 1918. The first volume describes Hooker's early life and his career up to 1860. It includes many letters to Darwin as the two men discussed the new theories and the publication of On the Origin of Species.

Preface
1. Early days
2. The Antarctic voyage: preliminaries
3. The southern journey and its scientific scope
4. The voyage of the Erebus and Terror: passing impressions
5. Tasmania and the Antarctic
6. South again: New Zealand and the Cape
7. The Antarctic voyage: personal
8. Return to England: and visit to Paris
9. Edinburgh
10. The Geological Survey
11. The voyage to India
12. Journey to the Kymore Hills
13. To Darjiling: the first Himalayan journey
14. The second Himalayan journey
15. Captivity and release
16. Last days in Sikkim
17. To the Khasia Mountains
18. The return from India
19. Botany: its position and prospects in the fifties
20. Science teaching: examinations
21. Science organisation: societies, journals, and rewards
22. Miscellaneous, 1850–60
23. Letters to Darwin, 1843–59
24. On species
25. The making of the 'Origin': science and friendship
26. Publication of the 'Origin' and the 'Introduction to the Tasmanian Flora'
27. The journey to Palestine and the work of 1860.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX]