Virginia Morell: Animal Wise

Advance copy: Backstories on books by NASW members

ANIMAL WISE: How We Know Animals Think and Feel

Crown: Hardcover, February 26, 2013, $26; paperback, March 25, 2014, $14.95
ISBN-10: 0307461459; ISBN-13: 978-0307461445

Morell reports:

Most of us have probably wondered what it is like to be a fish, a bird, a dolphin — or as Thomas Nagel did, a bat. Do they have thoughts that are similar to ours, or feelings of joy, love, and grief? Can such questions ever be answered? Nagel says, “No.” But that hasn’t stopped the pioneering animal behaviorists readers meet in Animal Wise.

Animal Wise takes readers on an odyssey into the labs and out to the field sites of researchers studying the animal mind around the world. They’ve dispensed with the view of strict behaviorists who once denied animals, other than humans, any thought or emotion, aside from anger or fear. Instead, following in Charles Darwin’s footsteps, they frame their questions in evolutionary terms to explain why animals behave as they do.

Animal Wise probes the moral and ethical dilemmas of recognizing that even “lesser animals” have cognitive abilities such as memory, feelings, personality, and self-awareness–traits that many in the twentieth century felt were unique to humans.

My book grew out of my article Minds of Their Own in the March 2008 issue of National Geographic.

If I could change one thing, I would change the subtitle on the 2013 hardcover edition — The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures — to the one I’m using on the 2014 paperback: How We Know Animals Think and Feel. The new subtitle more accurately captures the essence of the book, which is not an encyclopedia of scientific discovery, but rather a narrative about how scientists decide to ask questions.

By the end of the book, readers have (hopefully) experienced a bit of the life of an animal behaviorist, and understand what drives these researchers, and why their questions are important. Animal Wise paints portraits of both the scientists and their study animals, and reflects on what it means to be a human animal in the midst of the world’s many other animal minds.

Contact info:

Author: Virginia Morell, 541-488-5957. Vmorell49@gmail.com
Publicist: Rachel Rokicki, 212-782-8455, rrokicki@randomhouse.com
Agent: Gillian MacKenzie, gmackenzie@gillianmackenzieagency.com
Book website: www.facebook.com/animalwisebook

Awards for ANIMAL WISE:

Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist
American Library Association 2014 Notable Nonfiction Book
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of 2013

NASW members: will your book be published soon? Take advantage of this opportunity for shameless self-promotion.

Tell your fellow NASW members tell how you came up with the idea for your book, developed a proposal, found an agent and publisher, conducted research, put the book together, and what you wish you’d known before you started your project, or done differently.

See https://www.nasw.org/advance-copy-submission-guidelines.

Send info and images to Lynne Lamberg, NASW book editor, llamberg@nasw.org.

Advance Copy

The path from idea to book may take myriad routes. The Advance Copy column, started in 2000 by NASW volunteer book editor Lynne Lamberg, features NASW authors telling the stories behind their books. Authors are asked to report how they got their idea, honed it into a proposal, found an agent and a publisher, funded and conducted their research, and organized their writing process. They also are asked to share what they wish they’d known when they started or would do differently next time, and what advice they can offer aspiring authors. Lamberg edits the authors’ answers to produce the Advance Copy reports.

NASW members: Will your book be published soon? Visit www.nasw.org/advance-copy-submission-guidelines for information on submitting your report.

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