American Philosophical Society Museum

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Philadelphia Area Center for History of Science

Dialogues with Darwin: An Exhibition of Historical Documents and Contemporary Art

Programs and Events

Trollope, Eliot…Darwin? Charles Darwin as a Victorian Writer

November 23, 2009

The New Yorker magazine essayist Adam Gopnik in dialogue with Rutgers University Professor of English George Levine.

Adam Gopnik
The APS Museum celebrates the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s seminal On the Origin of Species with an unconventional look at Darwin—not as a scientist—but as a writer. Both Gopnik, the author of Angels and Ages: A Short Book About Darwin, Lincoln and Modern Life, and Levine have written of Darwin’s literary approach to nature. This conversation will focus on his qualities as a patient observer, a lucid writer engaged with the world, and as a modern man.

Adam Gopnik is an award-winning journalist and best-selling author. His essays in The New Yorker range from historical topics and art history to comic personal stories of life in Paris and New York.

George Levine is professor emeritus of English at Rutgers University. A respected literary critic, his primary scholarly interest is Victorian literature with a particular interest in science and literature. Among his many books is Darwin Loves You: Natural Selection and the Re-enchantment of the World.

4 pm - 5:45 pm: view Dialogues with Darwin
APS Museum at 104 S. 5th St.

6 - 7 pm: Adam Gopnik, in conversation with George Levine
Benjamin Franklin Hall at 427 Chestnut St.

Admission is free

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