Darwin for Beginners
{{Short description|Book}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Darwin for Beginners
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = DarwinBeginners.jpg
| caption = First hardback edition cover
| author = Jonathan Miller
| illustrator = Borin Van Loon
| cover_artist =
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| series = For Beginners
Introducing...
| subject = Charles Darwin
Evolution
| genre =
| publisher = Writers & Readers
Pantheon Books
Icon Books
| release_date = 1982
| media_type = Print
| pages =
| isbn =
| dewey =
| congress =
| oclc =
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}
Darwin for Beginners, republished as Introducing Darwin, is a 1982 graphic study guide to Charles Darwin and Evolution written by Dr. Jonathan Miller and illustrated by Borin Van Loon.{{cite book|first1=Jonathan|last1=Miller|first2=Borin|last2=Van Loon|year=1982|title=Darwin for Beginners|publisher=Writers & Readers Publishing}} The volume, according to the publisher's website, "unravels Darwin’s life and his contribution to biology, and traces the path from his scientific predecessors to the later modifications that his own evolutionary theories required."{{cite web |title=Introducing Darwin: A Graphic Guide |url=http://www.introducingbooks.com/title/introducing-darwin/ |work=Icon Books |access-date=2017-01-20 }}
Publication history
This volume was originally published in the UK by Writers and Readers Publishing Cooperative in 1982, following the collapse of this organisation in 1984, in part due to a disagreement over the selling off of the US rights to this title, the book has subsequently been republished in the US by Pantheon Books and in the UK by Icon Books.
Work on the book proved difficult at times, according to illustrator Borin Van Loon, as the schedule of the author Jonathan Miller was, "always taken up with lighting Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House or making a television series on the human body.{{cite web |title=Introducing Darwin: A Graphic Guide |first=Borin |last=Van Loon |url=http://www.borinvanloon.co.uk/loonintrodarwin.html |work=borinvanloon.co.uk |access-date=2017-01-15 }}
Selected editions:
- {{cite book|year=1982|title=Darwin for Beginners|publisher=Writers & Readers|isbn=0906495962}}
- {{cite book|year=1990|title=Darwin for Beginners|publisher=Pantheon|isbn=0679725113|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/darwinforbeginne00jona}}
- {{cite book|year=1992|title=Darwin for Beginners|publisher=Icon Books|isbn=1874166013}}
- {{cite book|year=2000|title=Introducing Darwin and Evolution|publisher=Icon Books|isbn=1840461535}}
- {{cite book|year=2003|title=Darwin for Beginners|url=https://archive.org/details/darwinforbeginne00jona|url-access=registration|publisher=Pantheon|isbn=0375714588}}
- {{cite book|year=2006|title=Introducing Darwin|publisher=Icon Books|isbn=1840467150}}
- {{cite book|year=2008|title=Introducing Darwin: A Graphic Guide|publisher=Icon Books|isbn=978-1848311176}}
Related volumes in the For Beginners... series:
- {{cite book|first1=Israel|last1=Rosenfield|first2=Edward|last2=Ziff|first3=Borin|last3=Van Loon|year=1983|title=DNA for Beginners|publisher=Readers & Writers}}
Related volumes in the Introducing... series:
- {{cite book|first1=Steve|last1=Jones|first2=Borin|last2=Van Loon|year=1993|title=Genetics for Beginners|publisher=Icon Books|isbn=1874166129}}
- {{cite book|first1=Dylan|last1=Evans|first2=Oscar|last2=Zárate|year=1999|title=Introducing Evolutionary Psychology|publisher=Icon Books}}
- {{cite book|first1=Dylan|last1=Evans|first2=Howard|last2=Selina|year=2001|title=Introducing Evolution |publisher=Icon Books|isbn=1840462655}}
- {{cite book|first1=Cath|last1=Ennis|first2=Oliver|last2=Pugh|year=2017|title=Introducing Epigenetics|publisher=Icon Books}}
Reception
Professor David B. Richman, writing in Reports of the National Center for Science Education, described the book as, "a rather charming graphic account of Darwin's ideas."{{cite journal |last=Richman |first=David B. |date=September–October 2010 |title=Review: Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species |url=https://ncse.com/library-resource/review-charles-darwins-origin-species |journal=Reports of the National Center for Science Education |volume=30 |issue=5 |pages=38–39|access-date=2017-01-15 }} Professor Richard C. Lewontin, writing in New York Review of Books, describes the book as, "a superb introduction to a very tricky subject."{{cite magazine |title=Darwin's Revolution |first=Richard C. |last=Lewontin |url=http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1983/06/16/darwins-revolution/ |magazine=New York Review of Books |date=1983-06-16 |access-date=2017-01-15 }} Los Angeles Times reviewer Charles Solomon, however, dismisses it as, "a competent but by no means extraordinary biography."{{cite web |title=Darwin for Beginners |first=Charles |last=Solomon |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-02-25-bk-2024-story.html |work=Los Angeles Times |date=1990-02-25 |access-date=2017-01-15 }}
Professor Jon Seger, writing in New Scientist, describes the style of author Jonathan Miller, who he point out is primarily known as a TV physician, as, "that of a television documentary."{{cite journal |last=Seger |first=Jon |date=9 June 1983 |title=Sanitary and Not So Sanitary Evolution |journal=New Scientist |volume=98 |issue=1361 |pages=719 }} While Miller's text is, according to Lewontin, "historically correct, scientifically impeccable," with, "all the emphasis in the right place."
Van Loon's illustrations are, according to Lewontin, "a constant reminder not to take the life of the mind more seriously than it deserves." Seger describes, "the stream of rapidly changing images," as, "full of action," although at times, "pointlessly vulgar."
Miller and Van Loon have, concludes Seger, "not produced a work of scholarship," but have, "brought to life an important chapter of scientific history."