Wallace was in fact a very unconventional thinker, and his worldview was both unorthodox and complex enough to confuse those who are used to looking at things in more straight-and-narrow ways.  The result has been a proliferation, both in paper and electronic sources, of misinformation about the man and his work.  Hopefully, this site will serve to convey a better balanced--and more accurate--appreciation of what it was he actually stood for.

    I am very grateful to the Museum of Paleontology, University of California (Berkeley), for mounting a preliminary version of this service as part of their 'Evolution' page in 1998, to Western Kentucky University for providing funds making it possible to move the site in 2000 and expand it in the following years, to the Interlibrary Loan group here for help in retrieving various source materials, to Yinghua Lu for help in putting up the new online version, and to Beth Knight, Yinghua Lu, Amanda Johnston, Jennifer Rakestraw, Suzanne Hillin, Brandon Norris, Lauren E. Adams, Ramya Tata, Joshua Woleben, Meagan Miles, David Hall, Margaret Simmons, and Megan O'Hern for assistance in the scanning and/or transcription of materials.

    About Charles H. Smith:  Currently Professor of Library Public Services and Science Librarian at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Charles Smith has been studying the work of Alfred Russel Wallace for over twenty-five years.  Primarily a biogeographer by training, Dr. Smith also has interests in the history and philosophy of science, systems theory, statistical analysis, and bibliography; his wide-ranging efforts have gained him inclusion in Marquis Who's Who in America, and a Wikipedia.org entry.  His Wallace-related writings include biographical sketches for the New Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Geographers: Biobibliographical Studies Volume 8, the Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century British Philosophers, the Biographical Encyclopedia of Astronomers, and the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.  Other works by Dr. Smith concerning Wallace:  Alfred Russel Wallace: Evolution of an Evolutionist (online monograph); "The Once and Future Wallace..." (website); Natural Selection and Beyond: The Intellectual Legacy of Alfred Russel Wallace (Oxford University Press, Charles H. Smith & George Beccaloni, editors, in press); 'Wallace, Spiritualism, and Beyond: "Change," or "No Change"?' (in Smith & Beccaloni, eds., in press); 'What's in a Word?--The Reading, and Misreading, of Alfred Russel Wallace' (The Linnean, in press); '"Hussel," "Bussel" and "Kussel," Or, Using Google Books to Stalk the Elusive Alfred Russel Wallace' (Kentucky Libraries), 'Alfred Russel Wallace, Journalist' (Archives of Natural History, in press); 'Introduction' to Batu-Angas; Envisioning Nature with Alfred Russel Wallace (poems by Anne Cluysenaar); 'Reflections on Wallace' (Nature); 'Alfred Russel Wallace, Past and Future' (Journal of Biogeography); 'Wallace's Unfinished Business' (Complexity); 'Alfred Russel Wallace on Man: A Famous "Change of Mind"--Or Not?' (History and Philosophy of the Life Sciences); 'Introduction' to Volume One of Alfred Russel Wallace: Writings on Evolution, 1843-1912 (Thoemmes Continuum, 3 vols., Charles H. Smith, editor); 'Alfred Russel Wallace, Societal Planning and Environmental Agenda' (Environmental Conservation); 'The World of Life: Biodiversity Studies' (Choice); 'A System of World Mammal Faunal Regions' (Journal of Biogeography); 'Historical Biogeography: Geography as Evolution, Evolution as Geography' (New Zealand Journal of Zoology); Alfred Russel Wallace: An Anthology of His Shorter Writings (Oxford University Press, Charles H. Smith, editor); Alfred Russel Wallace on Spiritualism, Man, and Evolution: An Analytical Essay (electronic adaptation of a privately printed pamphlet); 'Alfred Russel Wallace on Evolution: A Change of Mind?' (symposium presentation); 'Additions to the Bibliography of Alfred Russel Wallace' (Archives of Natural History); 'Further Additions to the Bibliography of Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913)' (Archives of Natural History); and '"It's On the Web..."--Or, When is a "Russel" a "Russel"?' [for bibliographic details on books and articles see Dr. Smith's homepage].  Dr. Smith may be contacted for questions or comments at University Libraries, 1906 College Heights Blvd., Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, KY 42101, or by email at: charles.smith@wku.edu.