Author Description

The first of three volumes on the life of Sir Charles Lyell is a much-needed and definitive study of one of the giants of Victorian science. Following Lyell's career to the eve of his departure to America in 1841, it brings to the reader an intimate account of Lyell's early life and his discovery that all geological changes of the past had been brought about by the same kinds of processes observable in the present. Mr. Wilson demonstrates how the publication of the three volumes of Lyell's epochal Principles of Geology the last in 1833, established the basic principles of reasoning about the past history of the earth and profoundly influenced Darwin and other scientists. This is a work of heroic proportions in which the author uses Lyell's letters, journals, and notebooks to elucidate his reasoning and to marshal evidence that led to the first truly scientific inquiry into the physical history of our planet. Mr. Wilson has utilized sources never before consulted and amply illustrates the text with maps, photographs, and sketches form Lyell's writings to present a richly detailed picture of the development of Lyell as a man and as a scientist against the background of his times.