Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony

Name: Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony
Brand: Recorded Books
Availability: InStock
Author: Lewis Thomas
ISBN: 9781461812593

Author: Lewis Thomas

Narrator: George Guidall

Unabridged: 5 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 11/04/2011

Categories: Nonfiction, Science

Synopsis

This collection of 24 essays is a perfect introduction to the world of Lewis Thomas. Topics ranging from the riddle of smelling to nuclear proliferation carry the gentle, unassuming persuasiveness that characterizes the author's work. Here we are also introduced to the concerns that have distinguished Thomas' literary career: the natural altruism of organisms; the inter-relatedness of all creatures; the fragility of the human species; the uneasiness of life on a threatened planet.

About Lewis Thomas

Lewis Thomas (1913â€“1993) was born in New York. He earned a bachelorâ€™s degree at Princeton and a doctorate in medicine in 1937. He went on to become professor of pediatric research at the University of Minnesota, chairman of the Departments of Pathology and Medicine and also dean at the New York Universityâ€”Bellevue Medical Center, chairman of the Department of Pathology and dean at Yale Medical School, and president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. His now classic book, The Lives of a Cell, won the National Book Award in 1974.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Jose on April 11, 2018

This book written in 1980 in a decisive moment of cold war reflects well the climate of fear of a nuclear holocaut that could wipe out the humankind. It is made of a series of essays mainly on the devasting effects of nuclear weapons as in the essay tittled The Unforgetable Fire on Hiroshima and Naga......more

Goodreads review by Shih-Ni on December 10, 2012

"Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony" is the title and the last chapter of the book, which contains 24 short, non-fiction essays. Lewis Thomas, a scientist and a medical doctor, especially emphasizes the relationship between science and humanity as well as the destructive pow......more

Goodreads review by Remo on November 04, 2014

Por lo visto no aprendo. A pesar de que el anterior (y único hasta ahora) libro del autor no me gustó nada, como me compré dos en el VIPS tenía que leerlo. No es que el libro sea malo. Pero trata temas que no me interesan. No son grandes logros científicos, ni puntos de vista que hagan pensar, ni as......more

Goodreads review by David on July 11, 2018

My eldest daughter, who knows me very, very well, gave me this book for my birthday this year. An extraordinary gift. The essays by eminent scientist and thinker, Lewis Thomas, represent a collective meditation on human life and knowledge from the perspective of 20th century learning. He explores ou......more

Goodreads review by Janice on January 12, 2024

Lewis Thomas' essays are always good, although some of these are a bit dated. On the other hand, some still hit the mark (the fear that new medical discoveries will be overused or abused, for example). The overall theme, though is thermonuclear war. We've come a long way from 1980, so some essays ag......more