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PRIVILEGED HANDS

Name: PRIVILEGED HANDS
Author: Geerat Vermeij
ISBN: 0-7167-2954-7

A SCIENTIFIC LIFE

by Geerat Vermeij ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 1, 1996

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There are multiple stories, both personal and scientific, in this remarkable life of a blind scientist. A MacArthur awardee, editor of the journal Evolution, and a professor at the Univ. Calif., Davis, Vermeij is a Dutch-born scientist whose childhood glaucoma and multiple surgeries lead to the removal of his eyes at age three. Needless to say, his is a creative intelligence based on tactile skills and an undaunted spirit, bravura even. Vermeij has skimmed the shores of the Indian, Pacific, Caribbean, and Atlantic oceans, analyzing snails, clams, and other shell life, particularly in the intertidal zones where shells are alternately bathed by the waves or exposed to sunlight. In turn he has pored over museum collections and fossils to develop theories on species adaptation over the long and short hauls. He is in agreement with the punctuated equilibria theory of Gould and Eldridge and he has stressed the importance of predators in pushing species in particular locales toward thicker shells and smaller apertures—the better to avoid crushing and prying movements of crabs and the like. But that's just the science part. The tale spans the life from early segregation in schools for the blind to undergraduate Princeton days to graduate school at Yale (which admitted him only after a skeptical department chair discovered that Vermeij had no problem identifying specimens by touch alone). The role of readers, the importance of reading Braille and taking Braille notes are underscored with the strong stance on not isolating the blind and condemning them to sheltered workshop lives. And, while he has some caustic remarks on the ascendancy of molecular biology today, what really will endear him to the reader is his generosity and fair-mindedness in relation to critics and colleagues alike. ``Uplifting'' may smack of sentimentality, but Vermeij's life story surely is uplifting—and it contributes importantly to evolutionary science.

Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1996

ISBN: 0-7167-2954-7

Page Count: 256

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

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NUTCRACKER

by E.T.A. Hoffmann ‧ RELEASE DATE: Oct. 28, 1996

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This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

Categories:

GENERAL NONFICTION

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MOUSE KING
by E.T.A. Hoffmann ; adapted by Natalie Andrewson ; illustrated by Natalie Andrewson

- BOOK REVIEW
THE NUTCRACKER
by E.T.A. Hoffmann & illustrated by Julie Paschkis

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TO THE ONE I LOVE THE BEST

EPISODES FROM THE LIFE OF LADY MENDL (ELSIE DE WOLFE)

by Ludwig Bemelmans ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 23, 1955

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An extravaganza in Bemelmans' inimitable vein, but written almost dead pan, with sly, amusing, sometimes biting undertones, breaking through. For Bemelmans was "the man who came to cocktails". And his hostess was Lady Mendl (Elsie de Wolfe), arbiter of American decorating taste over a generation. Lady Mendl was an incredible person,- self-made in proper American tradition on the one hand, for she had been haunted by the poverty of her childhood, and the years of struggle up from its ugliness,- until she became synonymous with the exotic, exquisite, worshipper at beauty's whrine. Bemelmans draws a portrait in extremes, through apt descriptions, through hilarious anecdote, through surprisingly sympathetic and understanding bits of appreciation. The scene shifts from Hollywood to the home she loved the best in Versailles. One meets in passing a vast roster of famous figures of the international and artistic set. And always one feels Bemelmans, slightly offstage, observing, recording, commenting, illustrated.