Russian-born intellectual Vladimir Nabokov was once asked whether he considered himself a writer or a scientist. (Well-known for his prominent literary works such as Lolita and The Gift, Nabokov was also an entomologist, evolutionary theorist, and butterfly curator for Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology.) Nabokov responded to the inquiry with puzzlement, offering the observation: “There can be no science without fancy. No art without facts.”
John Gurche’s Shaping Humanity: How Science, Art, and Imagination Help Us Understand Our Origins is the very embodiment of Nabokov’s sentiment. Shaping Humanity is the art and science of understanding human origins that is thoughtfully, purposefully, and brilliantly refracted through the author’s aesthetic lens.
For full review here at New York Journal of Books.
