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But there’s also a twist to my Darwinian research and scholarhip. Gould used to introduce me to audiences by saying, “Richard doesn’t just search the history of science for biographical and intellectual insights—he’s the only Darwin historian who’s always looking for song cues.” That’s because, back in the 1960s, when I was a graduate student at the University of California (UCLA and Berkeley), I began writing songs about Darwin and evolution and performed monologues with a jazz bassist at San Francisco coffee houses. I’m still writing songs about Darwin and evolution, and for the past decade have performed my one-man musical Charles Darwin: Live & In Concert all over the world, including such venues as the Edinburgh Science Festival, London Natural History Museum, Dresden Museum, American Museum of Natural History, Canberra Skeptics Society (Australia) and most recently—the fulfillment of a lifelong dream—on a cruise ship in the Galapagos Islands. (After the performance, the audience gathered on deck, where they were treated to a unique spectacle—sea lions leaping out of the water to catch flying fish in mid-air!)
Eight of my Darwin songs, with music by Jacques Semmelman, will be performed this coming spring by a 100-voice choir in Cambridge, Massachusetts, known as the North Cambridge Family Opera Company. You can click on the short video clip above to view New York Times coverage of my show on Darwin Day this year.
Theater critic Rex Reed wrote that “Milner’s songs are clever and witty; he could tackle musically any subject.” Tony Randall called them “absolutely wonderful,” and famed Broadway lyricist Marshall (Once Upon a Mattress) Barer wrote: “Milner’s lines are incredible. Written with seemingly effortless expertise, Richard Milner’s lyrics leave us unaware (until we’ve finished laughing) that we have made a quantum leap in the reconciliation of art and science. The songs are fresh yet inevitable, modest and audacious, stylishly eclectic, touching and hilarious.” Master lyricist Sheldon (Fiddler on the Roof) Harnick said in the Wall Street Journal, “His lyrics are expert especially because they’re so scientifically rich.” Click image on right to see some of the lyrics.
This is, of course, the big Darwin 200th Anniversary Year. (Also the 150th Anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species.) With Darwin’s Anniversary, and the Tenth Anniversary of Darwin Live, there has been a flurry of shows and lectures in Boston, California, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, Florida, Chicago, and Los Angeles. To find out when I will be performing near you, see the full schedule of upcoming personal appearances, lectures, and events.
In his introduction to Darwin’s Universe, Ian Tattersall, Curator in the Division of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History writes: “This book is crammed with the results of a lifetime of inquiry, and will become an indispensable reference for anyone interested in evolutionary thought and the changing milieus through which it has developed. But while as a result you will probably pick it up for information and insight, I guarantee you’ll read it for fun.” Darwin’s Universe is not only about Darwin’s Life and thought (and those of his friends and fellow evolutionists) but is the story of how evolution leaped out of science to influence drama, literature, exploration, cinema, law, and popular culture. Speaking of Darwin’s Big Bicentennial, I have just co-edited the 200th Anniversary Special Darwin-Wallace Issue of the Linnean Society of London. You can read my
Part of the Linnean story involves my discovery of an amazing court trial in 1876—the first time a psychic had ever been charged by a scientist with concocting fraudulent “scientific experiments.” I found, to my astonishment, that the two greatest naturalists of the nineteenth century took opposing sides when the supernatural went on trial. Alfred Russel Wallace, co-discoverer of the theory of natural selection was the star witness for the defense, while Charles Darwin secretly contributed funds to the prosecution. (See “Charles Darwin & Associates, Ghostbusters” [PDF].) You can hear me speak about “Darwin as Ghostbuster, Muse, and Magistrate” with Steve Mirsky on Scientific American’s current podcast. One last exciting project I need to mention: Charles R. Knight: The Father of Paleoart will be published next year by Harry Abrams. This definitive volume of artworks by the groundbreaking “artist who saw through time,” will be a first-rate collection of Knight’s dinosaurs, mammoths, early humans, and living animals. His magnificent murals rank among the greatest treasures of the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Field Museum in Chicago, (see Field Museum Chas. Knight Web site) and other institutions. See also the World of Charles R. Knight. (If you own an original Knight, we’d be very interested in seeing a snapshot or scan; important material for the book is always turning up.)
I was deeply delighted that Rhoda Knight Kalt chose me to assemble this treasury of her grandfather’s artistic legacy, which will include his wonderful wildlife renderings as well as the classic prehistoric scenes. Knight’s surviving private letters and papers, many of which we will publish for the first time, are also fascinating. Steve Gould and I became serious Knight fans when we were still kids, in those days long before Jurassic Park, when Charles R. Knight’s dinosaurs were “THE Dinosaurs.” I was given the monicker “Dino” in the schoolyard, and Steve was dubbed “Fossilface.” The late, lamented Harvard Professor S. J. Gould dedicated one of his last books to me—so this one’s for you, Fossilface! (See my memoir “Farewell, Fossilface” (PDF) from Skeptic magazine.) Thanks for visiting Darwinlive.com. I hope you will like my writings, songs, and performances. It’s my deepest pleasure and my joy to use history, science, and scholarship to create music, theater, and art. Darwin’s lessons went beyond science. He spent a life making his play his work and his work his play. As Darwin sings in my show, while gathering specimens aboard HMS Beagle, “I do what I love and I love what I do.”
 
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