Constantine Samuel Rafinesque: A Voice in the American Wilderness
Editorial Reviews
Book Description
Half a century after the death of Constantine Samuel Rafinesque in 1840, a small number of researchers, biographers, and historians of natural science suggested that the famed botanist's last name should become the newest adjective in the English lexicon. Had they succeeded, "rafinesque" would have forever been a literary tool to describe those poor souls, occasionally reaching but always aspiring to lofty heights, who brought chronic calamity and defeat upon themselves through grandiose, narcissistic visions of their own importance.
Why did some push for one man's name to become a signifier of a whole range of human behavior? As noted professor, researcher, doctor, and author Leonard Warren shows in this long-overdue biography, Rafinesque displayed unique extravagance in his behavior, his imagination, and his lightning intelligence. Among his achievements were pre-Darwinian theories of the gradual evolution of differing plant species through minute changes in response to environmental stimuli (Darwin later acknowledged Rafinesque's pioneering work in the field). Rafinesque also named more than 6,700 species of plants during his travels-mostly on foot-across the length and breadth of nineteenth-century America.
Rafinesque was the first professor of natural history west of the Allegheny Mountains, teaching at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky. Yet despite his accomplishments, he never lacked for detractors, and he rarely failed to provide his adversaries with rich fodder for criticism. His imagination sometimes dominated his analytic sense and rendered much of his work unreliable at best and nonsensical or fraudulent at worst. Also prone to petulance, jealousy, paranoia, and self-righteousness, Rafinesque alienated his colleagues and offended most in the scientific establishment who were in positions to influence his destiny. Their overwhelming discomfort with Rafinesque, and their repeated rejections of his often brilliant but unpredictable work, diminished his status and hurt him both personally and professionally during his later years. Tragically, upon his death, Raffinesque's wealth of unpublished writings and his massive collection of plant specimens were destroyed or scattered without regard.
Leonard Warren portrays Constantine Samuel Rafinesque as a remarkably complex and ultimately tragic figure in the annals of science. Decades after his death, when the burning questions of Rafinesque's day were better understood, a small number of scientists and natural historians began to reconsider the maverick's life and work. While still finding much to dismiss, they also found much to admire. The scope of Rafinesque's intelligence and the array of his accomplishments are widely acknowledged today, and with Leonard Warren's biography, his legacy as a brilliant scientific discoverer is even more secure.
About the Author
Leonard Warren, M.D., Ph.D., Institute Professor at the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology in Philadelphia and American Cancer Society Research Professor Emeritus at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, is the author of Joseph Leidy: The Last Man Who Knew Everything and Adele Marion Fielde: Feminist, Social Activist, Scientist.
Constantine Samuel Rafinesque: A Voice in the American Wilderness,Leonard Warren,University Press of Kentucky,081312316X,(Constantine Samuel),,1783-1840,Biography,Biography & Autobiography,Biography / Autobiography,Biography/Autobiography,Naturalists,Rafinesque, C. S,Rafinesque, C. S.,Scientists - General,United States,American history: c 1800 to c 1900,Biography: historical,History of science,NATURAL HISTORY, COUNTRY LIFE & PETS,USA
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