Darwin On Love

Charles Darwin was one of the great collectors and writers of both highly entertaining and scientifically meaningful animal stories. Loye uncovers a long-ignored treasure of delightful and often very funny tales of the love, sex, and family life of birds, apes, elephants, deer, earwigs, barnacles, grasshoppers, dogs, and cats--and humans--in Darwins works.

Biography/Science/Romance/Humor From Aesop's Fables to the worldwide multi-billion dollar success of Disney movies, one of the most popular genres for books, movies, videos, and television are stories about animals. The 20th century fixation on survival of the fittest Darwinism obscured the fact that Charles Darwin was one of the great collectors and writers of both highly entertaining and scientifically deeply meaningful animal stories. Darwin On Love is fourth in the six book Darwin Anniversary Cycle by evolutionary systems scientist David Loye. Using a computerized word count, Loye discovered that in The Descent of Man Darwin only wrote twice about "survival of the fittest," but 95 times about love By going to each of these entries he uncovered a long ignored treasure of delightful and often very funny tales of the love, sex, and family life of birds, apes, elephants, deer, earwigs, barnacles, grasshoppers, dogs and cats-and humans. Part I, The Discovery of Love, sets the stage with Darwin's own generally little known personal love story. We meet the four Fannies of his pursuit and acquaintance as a shyly lusting teen-ager, later the great love of his life, and the rollicking, happy family life of Charles and Emma and their seven children. Part II, The Parables of Love, uncovers the 95 tales Darwin has to tell of the love, sex, and family life of animals based on his own experiences and correspondence with other naturalists all over the world-including such famous figures as the great American painter of birds Audubon. Part III, The Triumph of Love, puts all this within the deeper long term meaning for love within the almost universally ignored fact that for Darwin the power oflove-not survival of the fittest, not selfishness-is the primary drive for human evolution at the level of development for our species. This exploration of a bond of love, which despite all that diverts and alienates us from one another, deep down joins each of us to others universally, could become a new classic for both adults and teens. Publisher: Benjamin Franklin Press. For more information, see: www.benjaminfranklinpress.com Cover by John Mason. Production: Cassandra Gallup-Bridge. Back cover photo: Bill Bates.