In Darwin's Shadow: The Life and Science of Alfred Russel Wallace ...

The Psychology of Biography /13
his work, which is one reason why, in his own time, he was as well known
and nearly as influential as Darwin. In many ways, in fact, in conducting a
quantitative analysis of Wallace’s works we see that the scope of his intellectual
interests far outstripped that of Darwin. Throughout this biography, we
will see how Wallace integrated his many different scientific interests, as well
as how these larger thematic pairs often formed an underlying substrate beneath
the superficial issues at hand.
Quantifying Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace led a remarkably long and productive life of nearly
ninety-one years, having been born in 1823 just after Napoleon’s death and
dying in 1913 just before the Great War erupted. Wallace’s influence was (and
in many ways still is) pervasive. Numerous species of plants and animals
carry his name. “Wallace’s Line” (and “Wallacea”) refers to the transitional
zone between the Australian and Asian biogeographical regions. The planet’s
six basic biogeographic regions are sometimes referred to as “Wallace’s
realms.” The “Wallace effect” involves the production of sterile hybrids in
reproductively isolated populations. A plaque commemorating his life lies
near Darwin’s in Westminster Abbey. Although he never earned a doctorate
nor was he a professor, he was referred to as “Dr. Wallace” and “Professor
Wallace” in countless interviews and articles about him, and he did, in fact,
receive honorary doctorates from the University of Dublin in 1882 and Oxford
University in 1889, not to mention professional membership in all of Britain’s
major scientific societies, including the Royal Society. Even now his name
carries weight around the world. In 2000 “Operation Wallacea Trust” was
founded “to support activities that could directly contribute towards the conservation
of biodiversity in the Wallacea region of eastern Indonesia,” as well
as the “Zoological Society Wallacea,” a “new society for zoological research
in South East Asia.” 17
In his final years, and on his death, Wallace was hailed as one of the greatest
scientists to ever live. Press accounts refer to him as “England’s greatest living
naturalist” (1886); “[one of the two] most important and significant figures
of the nineteenth century” (1904); “a mid-Victorian giant” (1909); “this
greatest living representative of the Victorians” (1910); “the Grand Old Man
of Science” (1911, 1913, 1913); “the last of the great Victorians” (1912); “the
last of that great breed of men with whose names the glory of the Victorian
era is inseparably bound up” (1913); “the acknowledged dean of the world’s
scientists” (1913); “one of the greatest naturalists of the nineteenth century”
(1913); “We should not know where to look among the world’s greatest men
for a figure more worthy to be called unique” (1913); “Of all the great men