Scholar's Dilemma: 'Green Darwin' vs. 'Paper Darwin,' An Interview with David Kohn

摘要

When David Kohn retired from Drew University in 2005 as Oxnam Professor of Science and Society, his "golden years" quickly turned green. After an influential career focused on what he calls the archival, "paper Darwin," Kohn planned to spend more time riding his bicycle and maybe settle down at his kitchen table to write a book or two. But what Kohn calls his "graduation" from academia brought him back full circle to his original fascination with Darwin's botany--and an exciting new "green Darwin" phase. Even before he left Drew, in 1998, Kohn was capping a full quarter century of close work on such textual matters as editing the extensive Correspondence of Charles Darwin and collaborating on the publication of Charles Darwins Notebooks: 1836-1842, when he took a final sabbatical to chase Darwin papers in the Cambridge University Library. There he encountered Charles Darwin's great-great-great grandson Randal Keynes, who is a board member of the Charles Darwin Trust, then and now committed to restoring and preserving Darwin's home and the neighborhood around Down House.