![]() ![]() ![]() 40).ĭespite Wilson’s modesty, Rhodes shows this precocious young man was possessed of both genius and a serious work ethic. In Wilson’s own words, it was something he was destined to do “ not by any touch of idiosyncratic genius, not by foresight, but by a fortuitous constriction of physiological ability” (p. ![]() But also his early commitment to entomology, to “the small things that run the world”, as he famously said. They feature the infamous fishing accident that permanently damaged Wilson’s eyesight, his father’s shocking suicide, and a young man’s letters to his waiting fiancée. These first two chapters are easily the most private. The next chapter covers Wilson’s itinerant childhood-with the divorce of his parents and his father’s frequent work-related moves going some way towards explaining the solace he found in nature. Rhodes opens his biography, unexpectedly, with a 25-year-old Wilson collecting ants throughout the South Pacific for the Museum of Comparative Zoology in Harvard. Wilson: A Life in Nature, written by Richard Rhodes, published by Doubleday in November 2021 (hardback, 271 pages) ![]()
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