The Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve is a California ecological study area named for an evolutionary biologist who established the department of genetics at the U. of California, Davis, and influenced the modern synthesis of Darwin's theory of evolution. This is the previously unpublished autobiography of Stebbins (1906-2000), edited by Hollowell (Missouri Botanical Garden) and introduced by zoologist V. B. Smocovitis, his biographer. Images include family photos and his field collecting, but no ladyslipper orchids--a childhood fascination of his. Published by the Missouri Botanical Garden Press in association with the California Native Plant Society and California Academy of Sciences. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
G. Ledyard Stebbins (1906-2000) is widely regarded as one of the most influential evolutionary biologists of the twentieth century. His opus, Variation and Evolution in Plants (1950), provided the conceptual framework for the emerging field of plant evolutionary biology. The stories Stebbins recounts here—his first plant-collecting foray at the age of four to a New England bog; his deep friendships with other major figures in twentieth-century biology, including Edgar Anderson and Ernst Mayr; his role in establishing the Department of Genetics at the University of California, Davis; and his many treks in California, the state whose landscape and flora meant so much to him—reveal a life unified by his profound regard for the natural world and by the need to understand and preserve it.
