[Editor’s note: Due to rights restrictions David Quammen’s essay “Mr. Darwin’s Abominable Volume” is not available online. It is only available in the print issue.]
About David Quammen
David Quammen is the author of seven books of science writing, including
The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinctions (Scribner, 1996), Wild Thoughts from Wild Places (Scribner, 1999), The Boilerplate Rhino: Nature in the Eye of the Beholder (Scribner, 2001), and Monster of God: The Man-Eating Predator in the Jungles of History and the Mind (Norton, 2003). He is also a three-time winner of the National Magazine Award, most recently for his National Geographic essay, “Was Darwin Wrong?” His new book, The Reluctant Mr. Darwin: An Intimate Portrait of Charles Darwin and the Making of His Theory of Evolution, is due out from Norton in 2006.
Follow Us
Free E-mail Newsletter
Recent Blog Entries
On Leaving Home
Geeta Kothari
The following post is part of our online companion to our Spring 2013 issue on The Business of Literature. Click here for an overview of the issue. —— Some people move to New York to realize their literary dreams, but I had to leave. Born and raised in Manhattan, in 1988 I moved to Pittsburgh, a place [...]
Dana Gioia Reading & Poetry Workshop at UVA: June 3–4
Jane Friedman
On June 3, 2013, at the University of Virginia, VQR is hosting a public reading by American Book Award-winning poet Dana Gioia. A noted critic and anthologist, he is also the former Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. His books include Pity the Beautiful, Interrogations at Noon, and Can Poetry Matter? Gioia will [...]
Cameron’s Books and the Used Magazine Trade
Aaron Gilbreath
The following post is part of our online companion to our Spring 2013 issue on The Business of Literature. Click here for an overview of the issue. —— When I needed an article from the February 1963 issue of the defunct travel magazine Holiday, I never questioned where to search for it. I picked up the phone [...]
The Holy and Demonic Pull of Writing
Dawn Tripp
The following post is part of our online companion to our Spring 2013 issue on The Business of Literature. Click here for an overview of the issue. —— “There are moments, and it is only a matter of five or six seconds, when you feel the presence of the eternal harmony … a terrible thing is the [...]
Mayday, Mayday: Books About Activism
Robert Birnbaum
“The law in its majestic equality, forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.” —Anatole France “Those who have put out the people’s eyes, reproach them of their blindness.” —John Milton The majority of celebratory days in America are devoid of substance, [...]
My Avatar, My Self
Dani Shapiro
The following post is part of our online companion to our Spring 2013 issue on The Business of Literature. Click here for an overview of the issue. —— On a recent evening I rode up the elevator to a party in New York with the writer Kati Marton, who had just published a memoir about the untimely [...]
VQR Now Open for Submissions
Jane Friedman
Until August 1, 2013, VQR is open for submissions. For your convenience, our guidelines are below, but you can always reference them on our website, plus double-check to see whether we’re open or closed. Editorial Philosophy VQR strives to publish the best writing we can find. While we have a long history of publishing accomplished [...]
Income Disparity Within a Marriage
Steph Auteri
The following post is part of our online companion to our Spring 2013 issue on The Business of Literature. Click here for an overview of the issue. —— Five years ago, when I first started working from home as a freelance writer, my husband and I had come to an understanding. “If you can’t make this work [...]
Virginia Quarterly Review
5 Boar's Head Pointe
PO Box 400223
University of Virginia
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4223
ISSN 2154-6932