Stephen Jay Gould (person)

Stephen Jay Gould was born on September 10, 1941; he died of cancer on May 20, 2002. Gould was one of the most influential, and certainly the best-known, of all 20th century evolutionary biologists. He developed the controversial theory of punctuated equilibrium with Niles Eldredge. The theory suggests that evolution has for the most part taken place in short spurts, rather than as the constant and steady process theorized by the developers of the Modern Synthesis of evolutionary biology.

Gould was also a paleontologist (and expert on Cerion land snails) and popular science writer. As a writer, he was known both for his many strong opinions and for tying baseball metaphors into his columns on natural history. He was a die-hard New York Yankees fan. Gould received many awards throughout his life, including a MacArthur "genius" award. He was made into a cartoon character for "The Simpsons," and wrote essays for 300 consecutive issues of Natural History Magazine, starting in 1974 and retiring in 2001. He spent his entire career as a professor at Harvard, and held the positions of Alexander Agassiz Professor of Zoology at Harvard and Astor Visiting Research Professor of Biology at New York University.

The New York Times published the following on the day after he died:

A man with so many opinions is bound, pretty often, to be wrong, but Mr. Gould could be just as entertaining when he was wrong as when he was right. That was another reason he exasperated his colleagues, that and the fact that he came to stand for science itself in the minds of many lay readers. How his work will play in the years to come remains to be seen, of course. His scientific achievements are solid, and he has done everything possible to throw light on the subjects that mattered to him. And if some of that light, just in the off chance, fell on Mr. Gould himself, it is hard to begrudge him that now.

Some books by Gould

Collected Natural History essays

Many of Gould's books collect his essays, originally written for Natural History Magazine. They are listed here.

1. Ever Since Darwin, 1977
2. The Panda's Thumb, 1980
3. Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes, 1983
4. The Flamingo's Smile, 1985
5. Bully for Brontosaurus, 1991
6. Eight Little Piggies, 1993
7. Dinosaur in a Haystack, 1995
8. Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms, 1998
9. The Lying Stones of Marrakesh, 2000
10. I Have Landed, 2002

Other Works

• Ontogeny and Phylogeny, 1977
• The Evolution of Gryphaea, 1980
• The Mismeasure of Man, 1981
• An Urchin in the Storm: Essays about Books and Ideas, 1987
• Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time, 1987
• Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History, 1989
• Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin, 1996
• Questioning the Millennium: A Rationalist's Guide to a Precisely Arbitrary Countdown, 1997
• Rock of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life, 1999
• Crossing Over: Where Art and Science Meet, 2000
• The Structure of Evolutionary Theory, 2002
• Triumph and Tragedy in Mudville: A Lifelong Passion for Baseball, 2003
• The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox: Ending the False War Between Science and the Humanities, 2003