“I hope that in due time she will be recognized as one of the greatest scientific thinkers of our time.”—Ernest Callenbach, author of Ecotopia
“It’s the ideas that really matter―and Lynn certainly had hers. They were novel and profound, and she simply wanted all the rest of the world to adjust their thinking to accommodate and embrace what she saw were the simple, beautiful truths that she had uncovered.”—Dr. Niles Eldredge, contributor, and author of Darwin: Discovering the Tree of Life
“I can’t imagine what the world of biological science in the twentieth century would have been had Lynn Margulis not come along. In this volume, we can read about some of the vast range of intellect she influenced.”—Wes Jackson, president, The Land Institute
“Lynn and I often argued, as good collaborators should, and we wrangled over the intricate finer points of self-regulation, but always remained good friends, perhaps because we were confident that we were right.”—Dr. James Lovelock, contributor, and author of The Vanishing Face of Gaia
“It was life―profligate, teeming life in all its weirdness―that held the magic for her, not this featherless biped with its confused aspirations. Lynn intuited and doggedly gathered evidence to show that most anything we two-leggeds take special pride in―our capacities for cogitation, conviviality, and culture―had been invented, eons before, by the microbial entities that compose us.”—David Abram, contributor, and author of Spell of the Sensuous
“In this thoughtful and expertly curated collection, Margulis’s son and long-time collaborator, Dorion Sagan, calls her “indomitable Lynn.” A fearless and zealous advocate of her theories who could also display a loving heart, he writes, “[H]er threat was not to people but to the evil done to the spirit by the entrenchment of unsupported views.” In other essays, Margulis’s complex personality beguiles, frustrates, charms, and elevates various writers, resulting in a stunning portrait that no single remembrance could have captured.
Taken as a whole, Sagan’s collection is a fitting tribute to a woman whose life and legacy have touched so many others. As he notes, her indomitable spirit lives on through her children, grandchildren, colleagues, and students―and most of all, through the work that she championed so well.”—ForeWord Reviews
“This is a captivating read for anyone interested in what powers great scientists.”—Publishers Weekly
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