Edmund Blair Bolles
Edmund Blair Bolles | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1942 (age 83–84) |
| Occupation | Humanist; science writer; author |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | American |
| Alma mater | Washington University in St. Louis (BA); University of Pennsylvania (MA) |
| Notable works | The Ice Finders; Einstein Defiant; Galileo's Commandment (editor) |
Edmund Blair Bolles (born 1942) is an American humanist and science writer. His work often explores the intersection of science and culture, including books on geology, physics, memory, language and perception.
Early life and education
Bolles grew up in Washington, D.C., Paris, and Toledo, Ohio. He earned a bachelor's degree from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in English from the University of Pennsylvania. He served two years in Tanzania as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching science, mathematics and agriculture, and has lived in Washington State, Los Angeles and New York.[1][2][3][4] He is also listed by the Peace Corps among its notable volunteers in Arts & Literature.[5]
Career
Bolles has worked for decades as a freelance writer with a special interest in the meeting point between science and human imagination. His books have addressed subjects ranging from the discovery of the Ice Age to the intellectual debates surrounding quantum theory, and from memory and perception to language development and adoption.
Reception
Einstein Defiant received positive trade reviews; Publishers Weekly called it "highly recommended for science buffs as well as readers of biography and cultural history" (Feb. 23, 2004), and Library Journal described it as "colorful, readable, and well explains Einstein’s reservations about quantum mechanics" (Mar. 1, 2004).[4]
Selected works
- Einstein Defiant: Genius versus Genius in the Quantum Revolution
- The Ice Finders: How a Poet, a Professor, and a Politician Discovered the Ice Age
- Galileo’s Commandment: An Anthology of Great Science Writing (editor)
- A Second Way of Knowing
- Remembering and Forgetting: Inquiries into the Nature of Memory
- So Much to Say: How to Help Your Child Learn to Talk
- Babel’s Dawn: A Natural History of the Origins of Speech (2011)
- Who Owns America?
- The Penguin Adoption Handbook
- Adoption Handbook (2nd ed.)
- The Beauty of America
- Fodor’s Animal Parks of Africa
Major works (themes)
- So Much to Say (1980): on early language; argues children speak because they have "something to say"—private thoughts/emotions to report.
- Remembering and Forgetting (1986): opens with "Remembering is an act of imagination"; distinguishes computer storage from human remembering as sensory re-creation.
- A Second Way of Knowing (1991): on perception as grasping meaning from the senses; contrasts animal/human, sensory-based knowing with symbolic computation.
Personal life
Bolles lives in New York City.[2] He is the son of journalist and executive E. Blair Bolles and Mona Dugas.[6] His siblings include film sound editor/film librarian Harry Peck Bolles, Charles DeVallon Dugas Bolles, and a sister, Zoe.[6] Through his father he is a grandson of former Wisconsin congressman Stephen Bolles and Zoe (née Blair) Bolles;[7] their 1910 marriage and Zoe’s 1944 obituary identify their son E. Blair Bolles (Edmund’s father).[8][9]
References
- ^ "Edmund Blair Bolles". Macmillan US. Retrieved August 18, 2025.
- ^ a b "Edmund Blair Bolles". Counterpoint Press. Retrieved August 18, 2025.
- ^ "Einstein Defiant: Genius versus Genius in the Quantum Revolution". National Academies Press. Joseph Henry Press. 2004. Retrieved August 18, 2025.
- ^ a b "RPCV Edmund Blair Bolles". PeaceCorpsOnline. 2004. Retrieved August 18, 2025.
- ^ "Notable Volunteers – Arts & Literature". Peace Corps via Wayback Machine. U.S. Peace Corps. Archived from the original on December 10, 2006. Retrieved August 18, 2025.
- ^ a b "E. Blair Bolles, 78, A Retired Journalist And Colt Executive". The New York Times. January 29, 1990. Retrieved August 18, 2025.
- ^ Love, Jimmy (June 18, 1957). "Noted Newspaperman And Big Family Make Overnight Stop In Clarksdale". Clarksdale Press Register. Clarksdale, Mississippi. pp. 1, 5.
- ^ "Mrs. Edmund Harrison Blair Announces the Marriage of Her Daughter Zoe Papin to Stephen Whitford Bolles". The New York Times. New York. May 22, 1910.
- ^ "Mrs. Zoe Blair Bolles Dies After Long Illness". Evening Star. Washington, D.C. November 15, 1944.
External links
- Babel’s Dawn – Bolles’s blog about the origins of speech
- Einstein Defiant at the National Academies Press: https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/10737/einstein-defiant-genius-versus-genius-in-the-quantum-revolution