WALLACE, ALFRED RUSSEL

born Jan. 8, 1823, Usk, Monmouthshire, Wales died Nov. 7, 1913, Broadstone, Dorset, Eng. British humanist, naturalist, geographer, and social critic. He became a public figure in England during the second half of the 19th century, known for his courageous views on scientific, social, and spiritualist subjects. His formulation of the theory of evolution by natural selection, which predated Charles Darwin's published contributions, is his most outstanding legacy, but it was just one of many controversial issues he studied and wrote about during his lifetime. Wallace's wide-ranging interests-from socialism to spiritualism, from island biogeography to life on Mars, from evolution to land nationalization-stemmed from his profound concern with the moral, social, and political values of human life. Additional reading Standard sources on Wallace include his autobiography, My Life: A Record of Events and Opinions, 2 vol. (1905, reissued 1974); James Marchant, Alfred Russel Wallace: Letters and Reminiscences (1916, reprinted 1975); and Charles H. Smith (ed.), Alfred Russel Wallace: An Anthology of His Shorter Writings (1991), which contains a comprehensive bibliography of Wallace's writings and a bibliography of major secondary sources. Biographies include Wilma George, Biologist Philosopher: A Study of the Life and Writings of Alfred Russel Wallace (1964); Harry Clements, Alfred Russel Wallace (1983); and Martin Fichman, Alfred Russel Wallace (1981). Books focusing on Wallace's formulation of the theory of evolution by natural selection are H. Lewis McKinney, Wallace and Natural Selection (1972); and John Langdon Brooks, Just Before the Origin: Alfred Russel Wallace's Theory of Evolution (1984). Timothy Severin, The Spice Islands Voyage (1997), lavishly illustrated, is a combined biography-travelogue, tracing Wallace's work in the Malay Archipelago.A full treatment of Wallace's Line is given in Jane R. Camerini, "Evolution, Biogeography, and Maps: An Early History of Wallace's Line," Isis, 84(4):700-727 (December 1993). David Quammen, The Song of the Dodo (1996), is an excellent nontechnical account of Wallace's evolutionary biogeography. A significant interpretation of Wallace's evolutionary theories can be found in James Moore, "Wallace's Malthusian Moment: The Common Context Revisited," in Bernard Lightman (ed.), Victorian Science in Context (1997), pp. 290-311. Jane R. Camerini