The Intelligence of Louis Agassiz
The Intelligence of Louis Agassiz. A Specimen Book of Scientific Writings. Selected, with an Introduction and Notes, by Guy Davenport. Foreword by Alfred S. Romer. Boston: Beacon Press, 1963.
Contents:
- Introduction [GD's 25-page essay]
- I. Essay on Classification [Sections I--XVIII from Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America, v. 1, 1857]
- II. The Brazilian Journey [two chapters from 'the common journal' kept by Agassiz and his wife Elizabeth Cary, beginning in April 1865, later published as A Journey in Brazil, 1867]]
- III. Clarities [a selection of Agassizian perceptions: a jelly fish, turtle embryo, American autumn, earth's oldest terrain, American character, evidence of glaciers]
- IV. Agassiz the Lecturer [two public lectures later published as chapters in Methods of Study in Natural History, 1863]
- V. Evolution and Permanence of Type [title of Agassiz's last essay published posthumously in the Atlantic Monthly, Volume XXXIII, 1874]
- Chronology [Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz: 28 May 1807 Motier, Switzerland -- 14 Dec 1873 Cambridge, Massachusetts]
- Bibliographic Note
The decorations in this volume are from Contributions to the Natural History of the United States of America by Louis Agassiz. (verso title page)
Acknowledgements:
"I am indebted to Eva Thurman who gave me a copy of the Contributions bound in Neptune blue; to Sally Sylk who typed the manuscript; to my students, Steve Berrien and Ted Hauri, for their generosity in doing various chores; and to Karl Hill, for his patience, and for his suggesting that I prepare the book. I am grateful to Robert Butman for reminding me that Raphael Pumpelly had Hugh Miller read to him as a child."
Dedication:
FOR TOM GLEASON / If he will share the gift with Sara Dakin who cannot now receive it
Note: This is Guy Davenport's first book and it is his 'ABC of Reading".
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