Stephen Jay Gould, SIGNED Bully for Brontosaurus, 1st Ed., 1st Printing, 1991

Description: Stephen Jay Gould, Bully for Brontosaurus, 1st Ed., 1st Printing, SIGNED, 1991 Title Author Date Printing ISBN Bully for Brontosaurus Stephen Jay Gould 1991 Stated 1st Edition; First Printing 0-393-02961-1 978-0-393-02961-1 Bully for Brontosaurus by Stephen Jay Gould, published by W.W. Norton & Company, 1991, 8-1/2 in. x 6 in., 540 pages. Hardcover in excellent condition with dust jacket in excellent (plastic protected. Signed by Stephen Jay Gould on the title page. Bully for Brontosaurus (1991) is the fifth volume of collected essays by the Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. The essays were culled from his monthly column "This View of Life" in Natural History magazine, to which Gould contributed for 27 years. The book deals, in typically discursive fashion, with themes familiar to Gould's writing: evolution and its teaching, science biography, and probabilities. The title essay, "Bully for Brontosaurus", discusses the theory and history of taxonomy by examining the debate over whether Brontosaurus should be labelled Apatosaurus. In "Justice Scalia's Misunderstanding", Gould dissects and decisively rejects Antonin Scalia's dissent in the United States Supreme Court case Edwards v. Aguillard that overturned the last creationist statute in the country. Gould claimed his favourite essay to be "In a Jumbled Drawer" which discusses the debate between Nathaniel Shaler and William James over whether the improbability of our having evolved necessitates divine intervention (Gould, like James, argues no). The essay "Male Nipples and Clitoral Ripples" dealt with the issue of adaptive arguments. It derives from some work by Elisabeth Lloyd, whose subsequent 2005 bookwas dedicated to Gould (and her parents), and uses the case of the female orgasm to expand on the subject of adaptiveness in both depth and breadth. Reviews"Provocative and delightfully discursive essays on natural history. . . . Gould is the Stan Musial of essay writing. He can work himself into a corkscrew of ideas and improbable allusions paragraph after paragraph and then, uncoiling, hit it with such power that his fans know they are experiencing the game of essay writing at its best."--John Noble Wilford, New York Times Book Review Editorial ReviewsFrom Library JournalGould is a masterful essayist whose previous collections, such as The Flamingo's Smile, as well as other titles, notably Wonderful Life, have been well received. Most of the essays here, some with added postscripts and notes, were selected from his column in Natural History magazine (1985-90). Like those in his previous collections, these pithy essays focus on evolution and the workings of science. Gould's fans, serious readers many of whom eagerly await his essays to appear in book form, will find these works fascinating, literate, and often challenging--vintage Gould. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 12/90. - Joseph Hannibal, Cleveland Museum of Natural HistoryCopyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. - From Publishers WeeklySuccessor to The Panda's Thumb, The Flamingo's Smile and other books, this collection of essays from Natural History magazine may be Gould's finest to date. Focusing on evolution, oddities of nature, remote connections between historical figures and the battle against creationism, the author is severely critical of science education in the U.S. and, in "The Case of the Creeping Fox Terrier," textbook publishers who fail to adequately update their revisions. He introduces the (French) Royal Commission of 1784 and its investigation of Mesmerism as an example of logic; discourses on the real origin of baseball; attempts to reconstruct the human family tree. In "Justice Scalia's Misunderstanding," Gould chides Antonin Scalia for his dissent in the 1987 Supreme Court creationism case; the justice, he argues, equated creation and evolution. Whether his topic is typewriter design, the technical triumph of Voyager or Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak, Gould holds our attention. His essays are illuminating, instructive and fun to read. Photos. BOMC selection; History Book Club featured alternate. Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. Amazon.com Review Stephen Jay Gould has a wide range of interests, and for many years he has shared his enthusiasms in the pages of Natural History and the New York Review of Books, among other journals. His passions include baseball, the puzzles of evolutionary theory, and the game of scholarly detection as it applies to questions such as, "What became of dinosaurs, anyway?". He answers entertainingly, but never talks down to his readers. Gould is one of modern natural science's great popularizers, but he shuns the temptation to make the giant reptiles of prehistory the Smurfs of the 1990s, in the manner of a certain purple dinosaur. The 35 pieces gathered here make for fine browsing, full of sideways glances and digressions that eventually make sense. -- About the Author Stephen Jay Gould Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) was an internationally renowned and influential evolutionary biologist, a best-selling author equally respected by academic and general interest readers, and certainly one of the most influential and most acclaimed science essayists of the 20th century. Gould was the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology and Professor of Geology at Harvard University, the curator for Invertebrate Paleontology in the University's Museum of Comparative Zoology, and the Vincent Astor Visiting Professor of Biology at New York University. He published over twenty books, received the National Book and National Book Critics Circle Awards, and a MacArthur Prize Fellow, and continues to influence critical scientific thinking and evolutionary theory well into the 21st century. Note to Buyers: I am selling my entire expansive geological reference library assembled over a 40-year period, including every one of my Stephen Jay Gould hardcover books, many of them signed by the author. These are relatively rare First Edition, First Printings, not latter printings or reprints, all with original dust jackets. Also on auction is my complete geological reference library, composed of original mid- to late 1800s to early 1900s New Jersey Geological Survey (NJGS) Annual Reports and Special Reports, USGS Professional Papers and Bulletins related to Atlantic Coastal Plain geology, stratigraphy, and paleontology, and long out-of-print New Jersey Geological Survey groundwater reference reports published by the NJGS from a time when they issued print versions of the State’s most important geological studies (so please see my other auctions or search for "Stephen Jay Gould" or “Geology" or under my eBay account "Rockman58"). FYI, I am also selling my entire Queen and ELO record (LPs and 45s) collection, sheet music, history of the bands, and concert our programs and also the rare Star Trek TOS TV and movie memorabilia collection.*Combining multiple sales of books for combined shipping is absolutely possible if they are purchased during the same week. Please ignore the combined shipping invoice that eBay might send you, all they do is add all the shipping costs together - I will combine your purchases and quote you a revised shipping price. Thanks.***Please note: if you are bidding on a used or antique book. I do my best to accurately describe each book and identify any flaws it may have. If you have specific questions regarding its condition, please ask. I grade the books from visual inspection by browsing through to check for major defects but each page is not individually graded. Unless stated otherwise, some books will contain signs of wear and age which is normal within their age category. Note also that it is difficult to photograph slightly brownish pages of these antiquated references as my camera wants to correct that color to white; as such, any book from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s will generally have a very normal page browning even if my photos appear to be whitish or pinkish.*****I have highlighted the Media Mail option for maximum cost savings for shipping books; however, please note that those delivery times can be as much as 7-10 days, per the USPS, depending on your location relative to where I am in southeast Pennsylvania.*******Please consider All Sales to be Final, with no returns. Please be sure that this is the item you are looking for prior to bidding. If you have any questions about the content or condition of an item, please ask prior to placing a bid. Also, I can work with you to combine shipping on multiple auction wins to save you extra shipping costs. ****

Price: 109.99 USD

Location: Downingtown, Pennsylvania

End Time: 2025-01-21T18:21:22.000Z

Shipping Cost: 6.13 USD