The Monk in the Garden: The Lost and Found Genius of Gregor Mendel, the Father of Genetics

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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000 - Biography & Autobiography - 292 pages

In THE MONK IN THE GARDEN, award-winning author Robin Marantz Henig vividly evokes a little-known chapter in science, taking us back to the birth of genetics, a field that continues to challenge the way we think about life itself. Shrouded in mystery, Gregor Mendel's quiet life and discoveries make for fascinating reading. Among his pea plants Henig finds a tale filled with intrigue, jealousy, and a healthy dose of bad timing. She "has done a remarkable job of fleshing out the myth with what few facts there are" (Washington Post Book World) and has delivered Mendel's story with grace and glittering prose. THE MONK IN THE GARDEN is both a "classic tale of redemption" (New York Times Book Review) and a science book of the highest literary order.

 

Contents

Spring 1900
1
Act One
11
In the Glasshouse
13
Southern Exposure
29
Between Science and God
40
Breakdown in Vienna
47
Back to the Garden
60
Crossings
69
The Silence
151
My Time Will Come
160
Act Two
175
Synchronicity
177
Mendel Redux
179
The Monk s Bulldog
199
A Death in Oxford
221
Inventing Mendelism
227

First Harvest
82
Eves Homunculus
94
The Flowering of Darwinism
100
Garden Reflections
119
Full Moon in February
133
INTERLUDE
149
A Statue in Mendelplatz
247
Another Spring
257
Acknowledgments
263
Notes and Selected Readings
266
Index
281
Copyright

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About the author (2000)

Robin Marantz Henig is the author of six books, including "A Dancing Matrix: How Science Confronts Emerging Viruses". She routinely writes about science & medicine for such publications as the "New York Times Magazine" & "USA Today". She lives in Maryland.

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