Full name: Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos

Author: William Poundstone Year: 1999 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Science, Non Fiction, Memoirs Purchase/reserch links: LibraryThing Goodreads Amazon ISBNs: 9780805057676 9780805057669 0805057676 0805057668

In this compelling life of Carl Sagan, award-winning science writer William Poundstone details the transformation of a bookish young astronomer obsessed with life on other worlds into science's first authentic media superstar. The instantly recognizable Sagan, a fixture on television and a bestselling author, offered the layperson entry into the mysteries of the cosmos and of science in general. To much of the scientific community, however, he was a pariah, a brazen publicity seeker who cared more about his image and his fortune than the advancement of science. Poundstone reveals the seldom-discussed aspects of Sagan's life, the legitimate and important work of his early scientific career, the almost obsessive capacity to take on endless projects, and the multiple marriages and fractured personal life, in what The New Yorker called an "evenhanded guide" to a great man's career. Similar books: Carl Sagan by Keay Davidson The Starship and the Canoe by Kenneth Brower Newton by Peter Ackroyd Richard Feynman by John Gribbin Stephen Hawking by Michael White Rosalind Franklin by Brenda Maddox The Man Who Changed Everything by Basil Mahon The Strangest Man by Graham Farmelo Isaac Newton by Kathleen Krull Obsessive Genius by Barbara Goldsmith Wizard by Marc J. Seifer Buckminster Fuller's Universe by Lloyd Steven Sieden Albert Einstein by Kathleen Krull Balzac by Stefan Zweig Victor Hugo by Graham Robb Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman by Richard P. Feynman Lab Girl by Hope Jahren Better by Atul Gawande Do No Harm by Henry Marsh Working Stiff by Judy Melinek