Background
Janet Browne was born in 1950 to the British family of a distinguished plant scientist Douglas Bell and Betty Bell.
2008
Janet Browne, introducing Steven Shapin before his Distinguished Lecture at the 2008 History of Science Society meeting.
2009
Janet Browne is signing her books.
(Discusses the rose in history, folklore, and art, offers ...)
Discusses the rose in history, folklore, and art, offers advice on cultivation and care, and describes popular species.
https://www.amazon.com/Roses-Romantic-History-Guide-Cultivation/dp/1561380881/ref=sr_1_16?crid=1BRVB8SPCSVPP&dchild=1&keywords=janet+browne&qid=1598822583&s=books&sprefix=Janet+Br%2Cstripbooks-intl-ship%2C271&sr=1-16
1992
(Few lives of great men offer so much interest - and so ma...)
Few lives of great men offer so much interest - and so many mysteries - as the life of Charles Darwin, the greatest figure of nineteenth-century science, whose ideas are still inspiring discoveries and controversies more than a hundred years after his death. Yet only now, with the publication of Voyaging, the first of two volumes that will constitute the definitive biography, do we have a truly vivid and comprehensive picture of Darwin as man and as scientist.
https://www.amazon.com/Charles-Darwin-Biography-Vol-Voyaging/dp/0691026068
1995
(In 1858, Charles Darwin was forty-nine years old, a gentl...)
In 1858, Charles Darwin was forty-nine years old, a gentleman scientist living quietly at Down House in the Kent countryside. He was not yet a focus of debate; his "big book on species" still lay on his desk as a manuscript. For more than twenty years he had been accumulating material for it, puzzling over the questions that it raised, trying to bring it to a satisfactory conclusion, and wanting to be certain that his startling theory of evolution was correct. It is at this point that the concluding volume of Janet Browne's magisterial biography opens. Beginning with the extraordinary events that finally forced the Origin of Species into print, we come to the years of fame and controversy. Here, Browne does dramatic justice to all aspects of the Darwinian revolution, from a fascinating examination of the Victorian publishing scene to a survey of the debates between scientists and churchmen over evolutionary theory. At the same time, she presents a wonderfully sympathetic and authoritative picture of Darwin himself.
https://www.amazon.com/Charles-Darwin-Biography-Power-Place/dp/0691114390/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Charles+Darwin%3A+The+Power+of+Place&qid=1598822487&s=books&sr=1-1
2002
Janet Browne was born in 1950 to the British family of a distinguished plant scientist Douglas Bell and Betty Bell.
Janet attended Trinity College in Dublin where she received her Bachelor's degree in Natural Sciences. After that she enrolled at Imperial College situated in London to the History Science. Janet graduated from there with a Master's degree in 1973 that was followed by a PhD in the next five years.
Janet Browne was a visiting fellow in Harvard’s Department of the History of Science and a Wellcome Fellow at the Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine. She continued at the Wellcome Institute and University College in London as a lecturer in history of science, as a reader and later as a professor in history of biology. Browne also served as a senior research associate at Cambridge University Library, and was senior visiting research fellow at King’s College.
Trained as a science historian and as a zoologist, Janet Browne’s most celebrated work may be her two-volume biography of Charles Darwin. She has also written about the history of botany and the early theories on animal and plant geography. A biology history professor at University College, London, she has also been associate editor of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin.
Prior to her focus on Darwin, Browne’s The Secular Ark: Studies in the History of Biogeography was published in 1983. She discusses early techniques in organic evolution and species calculation. The book is a history of the theories of biogeography from the seventeenth century until Darwin. Unlike other related books, Browne’s history is clear, noted John Hedley Brooke in his London Review of Books review.
In 1992 Brown wrote Roses: A Romantic History with a Guide to Cultivation. With pictures and drawings on each page, this book details how roses are bred and classified, includes information on rose art and lore as well as recipes for jam and potpourri, and provides advice and tips on how to grow roses.
After a decade-long break from biogeography, Browne returned to the topic of evolution research history. In 1993 she helped edit volume 8 of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin. This book covers Darwin’s life beginning at age fifty-one, the year after his On the Origin of the Species was published. Through Darwin's correspondence with religious figures, scientists, and other friends, the book leads the reader through his anxieties over his work’s reception, and, later, his newfound confidence about his work. It is a combination of scientific lingo and Darwin s emotions, immersed in Victorian life.
Browne launched her own Darwin biography in 1995 with Charles Darwin: Voyaging, the first of a two- volume series. The second volume, The Power of Place, was published in 2002.
(Few lives of great men offer so much interest - and so ma...)
1995(In 1858, Charles Darwin was forty-nine years old, a gentl...)
2002(Discusses the rose in history, folklore, and art, offers ...)
1992
Quotations:
About her work on Darwin's biography: "He was great to live with. I would get up, quite early, get the children off to school, everybody out of the house, turn on my computer, make a cup of coffee, and then I was with Darwin all day. It was lovely."
"I hope this is not the last study on Darwin. Each new generation must review his legacy and draw new conclusions."
Fellow: American Academy Arts & Sciences. Member: American Philosophical Society, Federal Bar Association (correspondent), British Society for the History of Science (president 2002-2004).
Quotes from others about the person
William C. Kirby, Edith and Benjamin Geisinger Professor of History, dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University: “Professor Browne is the world’s leading scholar on the life, times, and thought of Charles Darwin, a compelling historical figure who exerts a continuing powerful influence on our society. She has mastered that most difficult of historical genres, the biography, and furthered greatly the history of evolutionary biology.”
In 1972 Janet got married to Nicholas Browne. They have two daughters.