State of science biography
Joanne Baker
Wednesday, 08 October 2008 15:54 UTC
Why aren’t scientists’ biographies in the bestseller list?
Does our picture of science take enough notice of the characters and life stories of individual scientists? What do you get out of reading scientists’ biographies?
In an essay in the 16 Oct issue of Nature (p871), biographer Georgina Ferry asks why the life stories of so few scientists make it into the bookshops.
She finds that no scientist makes it into the top 100 biographies on Amazon; and of those that do appear, most are about well known figures like Einstein and Darwin. And publishers see scientist subjects as being too remote for normal people to relate to.
What do you think?
Updated 16 October 2008 14:30 UTC
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Yes, Georgina, that’s exactly why the American version does not have Wegener in the title – my American editor thought it would put people off!
And thanks, Maxine, for linking to my books!
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I’ve just come across a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson that “great geniuses have the shortest biographies” – they pour everything into their work so don’t have much time for life outside. (Unlike the “tortured artist/novelist”?)
So maybe the more obscure scientists are more interesting characters?
And I agree with Brian that the impersonal portrayal of science may put off scientists from revealing too much as well.
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Thanks Georgina for surfacing this issue. I am presently writing the authorized biography of Sydney Brenner, arguably the greatest biologist of the 20th century. All other issues aside (such as the quality of my writing) I find it saddening how little interest publishers have in this sort of work. The reality is that outside of Albert Einstein, James Watson —-and perhaps Francis Crick, the names of truly famous scientists are essentaiily unknown to the lay public, even the informed lay public!
A more objective indicator of this sad situation is that a highly readable book that I published on James Watson’s writing life (that was well reviewed)has sold less than 2000 copies since it was published 3 years ago.
What to do? What to do?
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Perhaps the discovery (possibly trailed in the title) is the key to selling the scientist bio.
I am not altogether surprised that the bios of scientists (even ones who have had fascinating lives) are not top of the best-seller lists, simply because what scientists actually do day-to-day (go to lab – do experiments – think about them – go home) is not seen as that interesting by many people. It is certainly not full of action, or other famous people.
But if the scientist’s bio is intertwined with a great discovery, something people have heard of or are curious about…
An example (though not a bio) might be Georgina Ferry’s book with John Sulston about the genome project(s), The Common Thread. The book was partly Sulston’s (auto)bio, but hung around the genome story.
Anyway, maybe the key to generating interest in the bio is the scope or wider significance of what the scientist did.
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