Images of scientists and ideas about science are often communicated to the public through historic biographies of eminent scientists, yet there has been little study of the development of scientific biography. Telling Lives brings together a collection of original essays by leading historians of science, several of them biographers, which explore for the first time the nature and development of scientific biography and its importance in forming our ideas about what scientists do, how science works, and why scientific biography remains popular. Theoretical and historical studies range from the seventeenth to the twentieth century, concentrating on such icons as Michael Faraday, Charles Darwin, Humphry Davy, Florence Nightingale and Sir Joseph Banks. With its broad sweep and careful, imaginative scholarship, this volume provides a timely and challenging examination of an important aspect of the culture of science that will be of special interest to historians of science, academics and students, and the general reader interested in the popularization of science.

Review of the hardback:‘This work makes for some stimulating reading and is well timed in that it has appeared when there is a notable resurgence of interest in scientific biography.’

Dennis H. Rouvray Source: Endeavour

Review of the hardback:‘… a stimulating collection of essays.’

Colin A. Russell Source: European Review

Review of the hardback:‘This collection of essays is useful and timely.’

Ludmilla Jordanova Source: Metascience