Quammen, David 1948-

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Quammen, David 1948-

PERSONAL:

Born February 24, 1948, in Cincinnati, OH; son of W.A. and Mary Quammen; married Kris Ellingsen; married second wife, wife's name Betsy (a conservation activist). Education: Yale University, B.A., 1970; Merton College, Oxford University, B.Litt., 1973.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Bozeman, MT. Agent—Renee Wayne Golden, 9601 Wilshire Blvd., Ste. 506, Beverly Hills, CA 90210.

CAREER:

Writer.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Rhodes scholar, 1970; National Magazine Award for essays and criticism, 1987; Guggenheim fellow, 1988; National Magazine Award, American Society of Magazine Editors and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, 2005, for National Geographic essay "Was Darwin Wrong?"; John Burroughs Medal for natural-history writing, for The Song of the Dodo.

WRITINGS:

FICTION

To Walk the Line (novel), Knopf (New York, NY), 1970.

The Zolta Configuration (novel), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1983.

The Soul of Viktor Tronko (novel), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1987.

Blood Line: Stories of Fathers and Sons, Graywolf (St. Paul, MN), 1988.

NONFICTION

Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, Schocken (New York, NY), 1985.

The Flight of the Iguana: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1988.

The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions, with maps by wife, Kris Ellingsen, Scribner (New York, NY), 1996.

Wild Thoughts from Wild Places, Scribner (New York, NY), 1998.

The Boilerplate Rhino: Nature in the Eye of the Beholder, Scribner (New York, NY), 2000.

Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind, W.W. Norton (New York, NY), 2003.

The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution, Atlas Books/Norton (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including Rolling Stone and Powder.

Contributor to books, including Alexis Rockman, Monacelli Press (New York, NY), 2003.

Author of monthly column, "Natural Acts," for Outside, 1981-96.

SIDELIGHTS:

Author and naturalist David Quammen contributed a nature column to Outside magazine for fifteen years. He has written several books on nature and is also the author of noted fiction works. His first novel was published when he was twenty-two and is based on his experiences working in a Chicago ghetto. To Walk the Line, as Quammen described to CA, deals with "the birth, growth, and death of a friendship between a white ivy leaguer and a black militant, and is intended to map the gradual convergence of two radically different consciousnesses." New York Times Book Review contributor Martin Levin called the doomed relationship between these two characters an "intriguing social paradox;" nevertheless, he believed the portrayal of these characters falls flat. In contrast, John Leonard observed in the New York Times that "what distinguishes Mr. Quammen's book is its humor, its lack of self-pity, the electric quality of its prose and a sense of the energy that flows between people, often to destructive effect." The result, concluded Leonard, "rings as true as a knife bounced off steel."

A drastic shift in topic and style marks Quammen's next novel, The Zolta Configuration, a political thriller involving the development of the first hydrogen bomb. Quammen includes historical facts and characters, indicating that he "has put in a good deal of research on this book," commented T.J. Binyon in the Times Literary Supplement. Even though it "makes use of precise historical details," noted Stanley Ellin in the New York Times Book Review, "never for an instant does it give off the musty whiff of scientific treatise. Mr. Quammen's portrayal of actual people involved in making the bomb brings each to life at a touch, so we have a profound emotional stake in them and in their experiences." The critic added that Quammen "is so informed on [the history] and so adept in his presentation of it that the narrative never loses a beat in its drive to an ironic and wholly believable climax."

With his next novel, The Soul of Viktor Tronko, Quammen "has leaped to the head of the pack of American thriller writers," asserted Tribune Books contributor Alan Cheuse. The novel uses another historical idea for its premise, detailing the CIA's search for a possible Soviet "mole," or infiltrator, within its midst. Although the idea is not new, "Quammen traverses this established terrain with skill, deftly interweaving plots, achingly conveying the ordeal of a ‘hostile debriefing,’" commented Time reviewer William A. Henry III. Washington Post contributor Dennis Drabelle, however, found the author's exposition somewhat confusing: "The novel proceeds via long conversation with retired agents, each of whom insists on depositing an arabesque of background and only then going on to answer [the investigator's] questions." This technique, wrote Drabelle, "frequently leaves multiple skeins of narrative dangling." Nevertheless, the critic thought The Soul of Viktor Tronko is a worthwhile book, for Quammen "writes posh prose" and "depicts violent action … with a freshness that old hands might emulate." "Finally," concluded Drabelle, "he solves the riddle of Dmitri [the ‘mole’] deftly and surprisingly." William Hood echoed this praise, writing in the New York Times Book Review that the novel "is enhanced by [Quammen's] vivid prose, strong characters, and welcome wry humor. Readers will be well advised to pay strict attention—there are clues aplenty, but as in the real, upside-down, secret world of counter-intelligence, there is a certain amount of dissembling; things aren't always what they seem."

Also a writer of short fiction, Quammen has collected some of his work in Blood Line: Stories of Fathers and Sons; the three novellas have invited comparisons with Nobel-winning authors Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. Explained Tribune Books contributor James Idema: "They're old-fashioned yarns, the kind that grab the reader, make him listen to the voices, hold him to the end and then linger in his consciousness. Perhaps even more remarkable is that fact that they are … unabashedly derivative." Reviewer Elaine Kendall elaborated in the Los Angeles Times: "In style, form and subject matter, [two of the] stories recall the Hemingway of ‘In Our Time’ and ‘My Old Man.’ Quammen's prose is not as stark and his imagery is more sensuous, but the bells toll loud and clear in homage." In a third novella, wrote Kendall, "Quammen takes all the celebrated Faulkner mannerisms just one step further. The effect is eerie, as if Faulkner had bequeathed his locale, his characters, and his structure to this contemporary Montana writer, with instructions to continue the work." Even though the stories in Blood Line are reminiscent of these authors, the work is "too compelling to dismiss" as imitation, commented Idema. "One is obliged to praise him for the faithfulness with which he has rendered" his stories in the styles of Hemingway and Faulkner. Concluded the critic: "These are at the same time first-rate stories and tours de force of literary assimilation."

While Quammen has garnered praise for his fiction, he is perhaps best known for his writings on nature. Several of his essays on this subject were collected in Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature. Quammen is not a professional scientist, yet his work "is sound science since it raises substantive issues about why things are as they are—the nature of nature," stated Bil Gilbert in the Washington Post Book World. "Natural Acts is much superior to, in fact is not even in the genre of, earnest ‘nature’ books simply because Quammen is a man of scientific curiosity as well as a writer who does not need nor is inclined to substitute pious … cliches for real words or thoughts," added Gilbert. Christian Science Monitor reviewer James Kaufmann had a similar take, writing that the author "typically recasts tired scientific phrasings or ideas in funky New Journalistic fashion."

As he does in his fiction, Quammen uses his writing skills to bring his observations of nature to life; Commonweal contributor Tom O'Brien remarked that the author "writes in a style at once incisive and graceful, with a sure sense of the ring of English sentences and the value of stunning images." Continued the critic: "Often his essays begin with an anecdote that quickly delivers the feel of nature, or a provocative one-liner that drags a reader into the center of an issue." And these issues need not be earth-shaking to be entertaining, noted Chicago Tribune columnist John Husar. "Quammen flames on and on through arcane yet relevant subjects," wrote Husar, "he breathes importance into the little-known nitty-gritty of biology. He describes wondrous places, people, and situations that range from the vitality of rivers to the awesome mysteries of cold." In other words, asserted the critic, "this guy is a great, great outdoors writer."

The Flight of the Iguana: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, Quammen's second collection of natural history essays, "is even better" than his first, asserted Harry Middleton in the New York Times Book Review. Like Natural Acts, the essays in The Flight of the Iguana are "very funny and very offbeat," remarked Los Angeles Times reviewer Lee Dembart; nevertheless, "part way through, the tone and focus shift. The articles become serious," added Dembart, "and Quammen uses science as a way to reflect on other subjects, some political, some philosophical, some just wise ruminations on this and that." Although the author ranges over a variety of subjects, "he writes with effortless control over his material and a quiet passion about it," noted Dembart. Quammen's unorthodox style and personal approach, wrote Middleton, results in "a prose loaded with ideas and emotion that is as thrilling and upsetting as a wild ride on a slightly unsettled roller coaster." Dembart stated that "Quammen likes science for its own sake, but he also likes it for the larger truths it suggests. He works the fringes of science and draws conclusions that are universal."

In another work on science and nature, The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions, Quammen describes the creatures he observed in his travels to various islands and discusses the global implications of island biogeography—the science that focuses on where living things live. Quammen asserts that the extinctions of some island species and the adaptations of others provide clues that will aid in understanding what is happening to nature on the planet as a whole, as the spread of industrial and residential development has caused wildlife on the mainlands to live in isolated, island-like enclaves that are unable to support a diverse population of plants and animals. Humanity is dividing up the world, he says, likening this process to cutting a Persian rug into thirty-six pieces: "What does it amount to? Have we got thirty-six nice Persian throw rugs? No. All we're left with is three dozen ragged fragments, each one worthless and commencing to come apart."

Some critics praised Quammen for mixing his ecological warnings with anecdote and travelogue, making the book accessible to a wide audience. "Quammen … is one of those writers who can make an academic subject fascinating," wrote James M. Glover in the Journal of Leisure Research. "There are profiles of eccentric personalities, conflicts between strong-headed scientists, a murder mystery, and animal stories galore, all built around the central theme." Christian Century contributor Debra Bendis noted that Quammen "never forgets to acknowledge his readers …. [He] stealthily weaves instruction around and through his travel stories, then adds maps (by wife, Kris Ellingsen) and a glossary. The author respects the reader's limits." In BioScience, Sahotra Sarkar lauded The Song of the Dodo as "a work in the finest tradition of autobiographical natural history, a tradition largely created in the last century by the great naturalist-travelers," a group that includes Charles Darwin. New Statesman reviewer Colin Tudge, though, thought Quammen's liberal use of anecdote is so much sugarcoating: "Quammen has succumbed to the fashionable conceit that ‘popular’ science has to be diluted with travelogue and soap biography." The book "would be much better without such stuff," Tudge contended.

Tudge did think highly of Quammen's scientific ideas. "In the study of islands lies half of modern biology, and David Quammen captures it all with clarity and excellent scholarship," the critic declared. In Newsweek, Sharon Begley applauded Quammen's "lucid explanations of evolutionary biology … and of the relation- ship between the size of an island and the number of species it can support." The latter, she stated, "is now crucial to understanding why wildlife reserves cannot support a replica of the original ecosystem and why extinctions are rolling through even America's national parks." Nation contributor Douglas Boucher, however, considered island biogeography less than cutting-edge science, calling it instead "a great idea whose time has passed" and that has not proved particularly valuable in resolving controversies about conservation. "The island concept is not a workable model for continental nature, either biologically or politically," he contended. "It ignores the fact that land outside parks and reserves is not like water around islands, but can be a viable habitat for millions of species. It doesn't distinguish between forms of agriculture and industry that destroy biodiversity and those that offer the possibility of living in harmony with it …. The planet is not a string of islands in an inhospitable sea but one biosphere, one civilization, one world. And sooner or later, all its people and pandas and penguins and protozoans will have to be able to live together on it." Sarkar pointed out that there are disagreements among scientists about the usefulness of island biogeography theory in conservation work, and expressed disappointment that Quammen "seems to deliberately avoid taking sides" and "also seems to view biodiversity conservation as a purely scientific problem," ignoring political and economic concerns.

Sarkar concluded, though, that "one book cannot do everything. Meanwhile, what this book does do (i.e., thoughtful popular science with a historical twist), it does very well indeed." Bill McKibben, writing in Audubon, called The Song of the Dodo "maybe the masterpiece of scientific journalism" and "a heroic achievement." Quammen, McKibben stated, "has given us the information we need to understand the most profound physical forces under way on the face of the earth." He and several other reviewers asserted that in this book Quammen has done an excellent job of underlining the significance of extinctions. Newsweek reviewer Begley observed that "it makes us care." And caring need not make one pessimistic, some critics noted. "In Mr. Quammen's hands," wrote Robert Kanigel in the New York Times Book Review, "the bad news of species extinction unaccountably uplifts. For it reminds us of nature's sheer, ornery diversity, and why it needs to be preserved. We share in the excitement of a new scientific discipline aborning. By book's end, we glean hints of hope that the future may not be entirely bleak."

Wild Thoughts from Wild Places contains twenty-eight of Quammen's essays culled from his columns and other pieces for Outside magazine. His subjects range over a wide variety of topics of note to naturalists, outdoors enthusiasts, sports buffs, and others whose lives regularly intersect with nature and the outdoors. He looks at several newly emerging viruses and the effects they are likely to have on human and animal populations; he considers the malady of cancer; he describes outrageously dangerous kayaking and skiing trips; he covers efforts to create conservation corridors throughout the United States; and he analyzes adaptive characteristics of pigeons that live in urban environments. He is "an often perceptive viewer of the landscape and a persistent interviewer," observed Randy Dykhuis in Library Journal. "Quammen's writing is energetic in the extreme, stuffed with information, but also with brash, provoking, indeed wild thoughts," remarked Commonweal reviewer Clare Collins, who further noted that "Quammen himself has a rare ability to write with broad appeal on topics ranging from whitewater kayaking to trout fishing to Telemark skiing." Quammen, Collins noted, "uses his exotic subjects as a framework for explaining everything from biodiversity to the physics of fluid dynamics to evolution."

The Boilerplate Rhino: Nature in the Eye of the Beholder, another collection derived from Quammen's Outside columns, provides a varied group of reports detailing encounters between humans and animals, "revealing all the gray matter and in-your-face complexities of human and non-human lives," remarked a reviewer in Whole Earth. Among his subjects are rattlesnake hunters; devotees of the theory that birds evolved from dinosaurs, and who want to make Tyrannosaurus Rex the official Montana state bird; the complexity and diversity of beetles; and more. Quammen is even willing to address his own shortcomings as a naturalist, admitting that he is afraid of spiders but particularly fond of snakes. The collection of essays "displays yet again how dexterously he fulfilled his monthly mandate" in Outside magazine, observed a writer for Publishers Weekly.

In Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind Quammen considers the ecological balance between humans and the existing large predators that can, and sometimes do, kill and eat people. His subjects include Asiatic lions, African and Australian crocodiles, Siberian tigers, and European brown bears. To further understand the place where humans and predators of humans coexist, he traveled to areas of the globe where these animals still live among the farmers, shepherds, hunters, and villagers. There, he talked directly to those who coexist with large predators and who regularly see their majestic beauty as well as their deadly ferocity. "The author recounts these adventures in the wonderfully exuberant, often colloquial yet basically erudite manner that marked his previous books," commented Joseph Losos in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "He switches from vulgar slang to recondite language easily; he also moves from precise description to abstract philosophizing with the same facility." In addition to the practical aspects of living in the midst of unpredictable meat-eating predators, Quammen also looks at the psychological, mythological, artistic, and spiritual aspects of mankind's long association with creatures that often see humans as just another source of food. He "incisively analyzes tales of our species' encounters with the monstrous from Gilgamesh to the Bible's leviathan to the Alien movies," noted Donna Seaman in Booklist.

Quammen's predictions for the future of the big predators is a dim one. By the year 2150, if the human population increases from six billion to eleven billion as expected by that time, Quammen believes that all of the big predators will have been driven extinct, except perhaps for specimens retained in zoos and other types of nature preserves. "We'll have them in zoos, and we'll have them in test tubes," he remarked to interviewer Katharine Mieszkowski on Salon.com. "But there will be no place where you can have the experience of walking out through forest and subjecting yourself to the wonderful, terrible, titillating sense that you're a potential prey item for a creature that's bigger and scarier and more majestic than you are." "Earth," Quammen continued, "will be more convenient and safer in the most basic, reductionist sense. It will also be uglier, more boring, and more lonely."

In her review of Monster of God, Christian Science Monitor reviewer Pamela S. Turner declared, simply: "Quammen is a superb science writer." A Kirkus Reviews critic called the book "Another good and provocative work from Quammen, sure to engage past admirers and earn new ones." His "crisp reportorial immediacy and sobering analysis make for a book that is as powerful and frightening as the animals it chronicles," stated a reviewer in Publishers Weekly. Monster of God, commented American Scientist reviewer James Sanderson, "should push us all into action, not simply to prevent the impoverishment of the world we are safeguarding for future generations, but to enrich our own world while there's still time."

In The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution, Quammen focuses on the life of the famed naturalist following his prodigious voyage of discovery on the Beagle, and after he had married his cousin Emma Wedgwood and settled down near London. Quammen delves into Darwin's voluminous correspondence from this time period, noting that the great naturalist was averse to socializing but was eager to communicate with fellow scientists. He describes Darwin's reluctance to publish his theory of evolution, and notes how Darwin plunged into detailed scientific work of classifying barnacles, rigorous natural science designed to bolster his credibility when the time did come to present his ideas on evolution. Critically, Quammen relates how Darwin received correspondence from a young colleague, Alfred Russell Wallace, who had independently managed to derive many of the key points of Darwin's evolutionary theory. With the capable Wallace so close to unwittingly snatching away his treasured scientific work, Darwin was compelled to publish his theory in order to retain priority on its discovery. In addition, Quammen recounts Darwin's final years and explores the status of the theory of evolution since it was initially conceived. A Kirkus Reviews writer named the biography "A first-rate look at the English naturalist's career after the Beagle," and also concluded that Quammen's "portrait of the great man and his magnum opus is affectionate and well-paced." Quammen, remarked Booklist reviewer Gilbert Taylor, "proves an informative, often wry guide to Darwin's life and continuing influence."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Quammen, David, The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions, Scribner (New York, NY), 1996.

PERIODICALS

American Scholar, autumn, 2003, Jonathan Cook, review of Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind, p. 144.

American Scientist, January-February, 2004, James Sanderson, "Something to Chew On," review of Monster of God, p. 88; November-December, 2006, Bettyann Holtzmann Kevles, "On the Perils of Publishing," review of The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution, p. 564.

Audubon, March-April, 1996, Bill McKibben, review of The Song of the Dodo, p. 123.

BioScience, February, 1997, Sahotra Sarkar, review of The Song of the Dodo, p. 124.

Booklist, July, 2003, Donna Seaman, review of Monster of God, p. 1853; December 1, 2003, Donna Seaman, "Top Ten Sci-Tech Books," review of Monster of God, p. 641; January 1, 2004, review of Monster of God, p. 775; June 1, 2006, Gilbert Taylor, review of The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, p. 29.

Chicago Tribune, November 6, 1985, John Husar, "Natural Acts Offers Delightful New Insights," p. 7.

Christian Century, September 24, 1997, Debra Bendis, review of The Song of the Dodo, p. 845.

Christian Science Monitor, May 29, 1985, James Kaufmann, review of Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, p. 21; September 18, 2003, Pamela S. Turner, "In the Forest of the Night," review of Monster of God.

Commonweal, June 5, 1987, Tom O'Brien, review of Natural Acts, p. 364; May 22, 1998, Clare Collins, review of Wild Thoughts from Wild Places, p. 22.

Entertainment Weekly, July 28, 2006, Wook Kim, review of The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, p. 69.

Field & Stream, December 1, 2003, "Now Read This," David E. Petzal, review of Monster of God, p. 57.

Hollywood Reporter, September 8, 2003, Gregory McNamee, review of Monster of God, p. 13.

Houston Chronicle, July 28, 2006, Fritz Lanham, review of The Reluctant Mr. Darwin.

Journal of Leisure Research, fall, 1997, James M. Glover, review of The Song of the Dodo, p. 476.

Kirkus Reviews, June 15, 2003, review of Monster of God, p. 849; May 15, 2006, review of The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, p. 510.

Library Journal, January, 1998, Randy Dykhuis, review of Wild Thoughts from Wild Places, p. 136; August, 2003, Edell Schaefer, review of Monster of God, p. 126; July 1, 2006, Gloria Maxwell, review of The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, p. 105.

Los Angeles Times, March 1, 1988, Elaine Kendall, "Fathers and Sons: Rites of Inheritance," p. 6; June 24, 1988, Lee Dembart, review of The Flight of the Iquana, p. 8.

Nation, May 20, 1996, Douglas Boucher, review of The Song of the Dodo, p. 30.

Natural History, September, 2003, Laurence A. Marschall, review of Monster of God, p. 60.

New Statesman, August 30, 1996, Colin Tudge, review of The Song of the Dodo, p. 45.

Newsweek, May 6, 1996, Sharon Begley, review of The Song of the Dodo, p. 80.

New York Times, November 13, 1970, John Leonard, review of To Walk the Line, p. 35.

New York Times Book Review, November 15, 1970, Martin Levin, review of To Walk the Line, p. 68; July 3, 1983, Stanley Ellin, review of The Zolta Configuration, p. 8; April 21, 1985, Tom Ferrell, review of Natural Acts, p. 39; September 14, 1986, Patricia T. O'Conner, review of Natural Acts; July 12, 1987, William Hood, review of The Soul of Viktor Tronko, p. 12; June 26, 1988, Harry Middleton, review of The Flight of the Iguana, p. 39; April 21, 1996, Robert Kanigel, review of The Song of the Dodo, p. 11; August 27, 2006, Adrian Desmond, "The Cautious Evolutionist," review of The Reluctant Mr. Darwin.

OnEarth, fall, 2003, Tim Folger, "Where the Wild Things Are: As the World's Big Predators Slip toward Extinction, We're Learning That It's Lonely at the Top," review of Monster of God, p. 38.

Publishers Weekly, March 27, 2000, review of The Boilerplate Rhino: Nature in the Eye of the Beholder, p. 58; June 23, 2003, review of Monster of God, p. 57; September 1, 2003, Ann Geracimos, "David Quammen: In Praise of Man-Eaters," interview with David Quammen, p. 58; April 17, 2006, review of The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, p. 175.

SciTech Book News, September, 2006, review of The Reluctant Mr. Darwin.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 27, 2003, John Marshall, "A Moment With … David Quammen, Author."

Smithsonian, April, 1996, John P. Wiley, Jr., review of The Song of the Dodo, p. 130.

St. Louis Post Dispatch, October 19, 2003, Joseph Losos, review of Monster of God.

Time, August 17, 1987, William A. Henry, III, review of The Soul of Viktor Tronko, p. 64.

Times Literary Supplement, February 15, 1985, T.J. Binyon, review of The Zolta Configuration, p. 179.

Tribune Books (Chicago, IL), July 5, 1987, Alan Cheuse, review of The Soul of Victor Tronko, p. 9; January 17, 1988, James Idema, review of Blood Line: Stories of Fathers and Sons, p. 7.

Washington Post, August 4, 1987, Dennis Drabelle, review of The Soul of Viktor Tronko, p. D03.

Washington Post Book World, March 31, 1985, Bil Gilbert, review of Natural Acts, p. 9.

Whole Earth, fall, 2000, review of The Boilerplate Rhino, p. 24.