Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009. Quarto, photographs, fine copy in dustwrapper.

This alphabetically arranged reference, an immensely entertaining browser's delight, offers a dazzling overview of the life and thought of Charles Darwin and his incredibly wide sphere of influence. Authoritative and abundantly illustrated, it illuminates the ways in which ideas of evolutionary biology have leapt the boundaries of science to influence philosophy, law, religion, literature, cinema, art, and popular culture. Darwin's universe, a thoroughly revised and updated successor to Richard Milner's acclaimed Encyclopaedia of evolution, contains more than a hundred new essays, including entries on animal behaviour (Alex the parrot, Kanzi the bonobo, and Digit the gorilla), on women in science (Mary Anning and Rosalind Franklin), and on the latest finds of human fossils. A veritable museum of natural history, it also contains many original discoveries brought to light by Milner's historical sleuthing. Packed with hundreds of rare illustrations, including many new ones, this Darwin Bicentennial edition will appeal to a wide audience of readers.