Darwin Slept Here

Part travelogue, part insight into one of the greatest scientific minds in history, this title takes you on a journey into South America in the footsteps of Charles Darwin.

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One snowy day in Ushuaia, Argentina, the self-proclaimed 'southernmost city in the world,' at the end of a long trip designed to put as much distance between himself and a frustrating post-college job as possible, writer Eric Simons picked up a copy of Charles Darwin's "Voyage of the Beagle". Simons and two friends had just hiked the mountains overlooking Beagle Channel, and Simons found himself engrossed in Darwin's account. Like Simons, Darwin was in his mid-twenties when he travelled to the continent, having joined a five-year expedition designed to survey and map the coastline of South America, to serve as the expedition's naturalist.Simons found himself compelled to return to follow Darwin further into South America - to stand where Darwin had, and to explore the histories, legends and people that had fascinated him two centuries before. Simons trekked to as many of the locations Darwin wrote about as he could find, to see if he could see these places through Darwin's eyes, and to see what South Americans know about Darwin.
2009 is a double anniversary year for Darwin: The 200th anniversary of his birth in February, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of "On the Origin of Species" in November. Part travelogue, part insight into one of the greatest scientific minds in history, "Darwin Slept Here" will fascinate and enthral.