A fluid, fascinating, emotional story of an unlikely genius who created a science. (60 illustrations)
A masterful, felicitous tribute to Smith (1769–1839), the extraordinary ordinary Englishman who conceived, researched, and drew the world’s first geological map.
Winchester (The Professor and the Madman, 1998, etc.), who studied geology at Oxford, begins at one of the lowest points of Smith’s life: August 21, 1819, the day he emerged from King’s Bench Debtors’ Prison, his life in disarray. It would be a dozen years before he returned to London to receive the honors he had earned for his most lonely and arduous task—constructing a geological map of England and Wales. As Winchester shows, Smith (an autodidact son of a blacksmith) was the most improbable of candidates to become a scientific giant. But he was equipped with a ferocious determination, an insatiable curiosity, an eagerness to muddy his boots and roughen his hands, and—of great importance—a rugged physical constitution that never failed him. He was born into an England whose churches taught (and whose parishioners believed) the Biblical account of a divine, six-day creation. He was also born into a strict class system that inhibited the acceptance of his work (for years he was denied membership in the Geological Society by the perfumed snobs who ran it—and who plagiarized his research). But he lived in a time that hungered for the skills he had mastered: drainage of farmland, construction of canals, and location of minerals. (He even discovered that the famous thermal springs of Bath had cooled because they were blocked by the bone of an ox.) One of his great insights was that fossils were the key to understanding geology: certain fossils exist only in certain strata. He amassed an enormous fossil collection that penury forced him to sell to the British Museum for a mere £500. He spent years traveling the English countryside, mapping the strata he had learned to identify in the coalmines and canals that had dirtied his clothes and enriched his imagination.
A fluid, fascinating, emotional story of an unlikely genius who created a science. (60 illustrations)Pub Date: Aug. 14, 2001
ISBN: 0-06-019361-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 2001
This tale of life with sextuplets is so lively and good- humored it almost makes you wish they were yours. Becki and Keith Dilley are blessed with energy, determination, a sense of humor—and four boys and two girls who will be two years old in May. Aided by Stall, editor of the Indianapolis Monthly, they recount in alternating chapters their courtship, marriage, and attempt for more than five years to have a baby. Finally, a state-of-the-art fertility drug led to a multiple pregnancy. Doctors detected five fetuses; it wasn't until the babies were delivered by caesarean that the obstetrician discovered number six—at 2 pounds, 13 ounces, the largest and lustiest of the group. The infants spent nearly three months in the hospital's neonatal unit, gaining weight and maturing. Moving in with her parents, Becki scrambled to care for the babies while Keith worked long hours at a fast-food restaurant. Sleep was a dim memory, as was any other piece of normal existence. Ultimately, Becki went back to work—as an experienced nurse, she could make more money—while Keith stayed home as Mr. Mom times six and proved a natural, organizing feedings, naps, playtime, and household chores with a minimum of frustration for everyone. Thanks to income from carefully selected interviews and endorsements (they accepted an offer from an infant formula company but turned down the National Enquirer), they were able to buy a custom-designed house in an Indiana suburb with a childproof playroom. Watching the toddlers explore and test their new skills there, Keith describes it as ``our own entertainment center.'' A chapter of tips for future parents of sextuplets or any set of multiples closes with the advice, ``Always remember how lucky you are that you were chosen to be uncommon parents.'' Endearing without being saccharine. (b&w photos, some not seen)
Pub Date: June 5, 1995
ISBN: 0-679-43706-1
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1995
In an account combining elements of The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym and a sensitivity training group, a father and son courageously voyage around the tip of South America, challenging the elements, their sailing prowess, and their capacity to get along. The elder Hays, founder and artistic director of the National Theater of the Deaf, his 24-year-old son, Daniel, and a cat named Tiger bravely sail a 25-foot boat on a 17,000 mile, 317-day adventure, navigating the fearsome Drake Passage around Cape Horn by way of the Panama Canal, the Gal†pagos Islands, and Easter Island, and emerging unscathed (save for the cat) in the south Atlantic. Written in alternating voices in ship's log form, with frequent musings on the meaning of life, death, and the father-son relationship, the terse entries mute much of the excitement inherent in such an undertaking. But the trip has its moments: As they round the Horn fighting gale-force winds and 20-foot waves, the Sparrow is momentarily flattened, and Daniel, tethered to the boat, is swept into the ocean. Most of the drama, however, is to be found in the minor power struggles between the characters themselves: Daniel, a more laid-back type, is critical of his father's dominance; David, a hard-driving parent, must admit to himself that his powers are waning, and gradually he yields captaincy of the boat to his son. These ongoing matters tend to becalm the reader in a sea of sentiment. Fortunately, the writers also comment on germane and interesting topics such as celestial navigation, boat design, and sailing techniques. The reader must care about the Hays family to be interested in this cross between a rite of passage and a sea passage, but the voyagers deserve accolades for this hazardous journey.
Pub Date: June 1, 1995
ISBN: 1-56512-102-3
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Algonquin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1995
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