Stephen Jay Gould

Had Stephen Jay Gould’s writings always taught us something — Dayenu! — that would have been enough. That he was an original contributor to his field just adds to his lustre. But the fact that everything he wrote was written from his heart with a passion to make the world fairer by making it clearer — what a faith in understanding! — made him, for me, one of the transcendent presences. I am sad to tears.

The Boston Globe this morning gives Gould a front page obituary. But in the fourth paragraph, the voices of envy are already being heard: “Critics occasionally grumbled that he was more focused on celebrity and commercialization than on rigorous science.” We really don’t need to hear this on the occasion of someone’s death. And that means we don’t need to hear it at all.

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