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Title: Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos by William Poundstone ISBN: 0-8050-5766-8 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company, Inc. Pub. Date: October, 1999 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.35 (20 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Bio That Strives to Ring True
Comment: Many of us who knew Carl Sagan understood how he compartmentalized his complex life. Few had an inkling how rich, surprising, and often tragic it was; how Sagan faced down death;how he hurt and cut off many and helped more.
For the reader, while rewarding to see that Sagan was a driven, and polymathic person (as a few of us knew well), it is also shocking and even distressing to see details of Sagan's private life up for ultimate scrutiny. In fairness, Poundstone was doing his job. In comparison, Davidson's competing bio of Sagan (also read by this reviewer)is a revolting escapade into several episodes of spiteful, foul-mouth invective, and marijuana haze, additionally peppered with unfortunate inaccuracies. I found no statements in error in Poundstone's book, although more than a few for which I could disagree upon his interpretation.
Superb portions in this bio abound; in fact, the decription of Viking is the best I have seen; Poundstone took me back.
A disappointment: Sagan's secretary, Shirley Arden, should have been front and center here, but shows up as a minor allusion. Shirley is a miracle worker, and for anyone interested in Sagan, it is salient to note her key role of support, editorial acumen, organizational savvy, surrogate mothering, and many other lovely attributes in making Carl Sagan a mensch.
A bittersweet book of a remarkable life,all too short. Sagan is missed but Poundstone helps make sure he will not be forgotten.
Rating: 5
Summary: Magnificent!
Comment: I am about halfway through reading this book, and it is quite a delight. I've read many biographies, and all have their quirks. But I've enjoyed reading this one. It flows well, and tries to hit the highlights of his life. I may not agree with most of Sagan's politics, but I enjoyed reading about his life. The biographer did a fine job, and produced a readible book. One quibble: the author noted a Seattle newspaper headline that may have given a wrong headline from one of Sagan's press conferences. But rather than research this himself from the microfilm records of that paper, he just left it dangling as an unknown. Use your feet, pal. But all in all, an excellent biography of Sagan's life, written in a style familiar to readers of Sagan's books themselves.
Rating: 4
Summary: Good, fair read
Comment: You can add me to the list of people who was about 7 or so when I first saw Cosmos, and it was a major influence (along with 2 scientist parents of my own) to go into science (not astronomy). Carl Sagan, and the way he made science poetic, influenced me greatly.
I feel that an absolute must in a biography, is fairness. I neither want to read idolatry, nor a muckracking book. This book was fair in its depiction of Sagan: a brilliant scientist, who cared about the world, science, writing, and his own ego. I especially liked the sections on his work with NASA on the various Mars missions; where do we land, what experiments do we perform, and just what do the results mean, anyway?
There was enough information about his background and personal life to keep it interesting, but not so much that it bored me. I was unaware of his first marriage to Lynn Margulis; a famous scientist in her own right.
This biography moved very quickly; I always wanted to pick it back up again. Lastly, you do not need any type of science background to understand this book. It is a biography, not a science text at all.
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Title: Carl Sagan : A Life by Keay Davidson ISBN: 0471395366 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 31 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Billions & Billions by Carl Sagan ISBN: 0345379187 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 12 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Ann Druyan, Carl Sagan ISBN: 0345384725 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 07 September, 1993 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan ISBN: 0345376595 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 08 September, 1997 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title:Cosmos Boxed Set (Collector's Edition) ASIN: B000055ZOB Publisher: Cosmos Studios Pub. Date: 12 December, 2000 List Price(USD): $129.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $129.98 |
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