Perhaps instead he was a model for how to go on when all seemed lost. But as her own life slowly unraveled, she began to wonder about him. When NPR reporter Lulu Miller first heard this anecdote in passing, she took Jordan for a fool-a cautionary tale in hubris, or denial. And this time, he introduced one clever innovation that he believed would at last protect his work against the chaos of the world. But Jordan? He surveyed the wreckage at his feet, found the first fish that he recognized, and confidently began to rebuild his collection. Many might have given up, given in to despair.
In an instant, his life’s work was shattered. His specimen collections were demolished by lightning, by fire, and eventually by the 1906 San Francisco earthquake-which sent more than a thousand discoveries, housed in fragile glass jars, plummeting to the floor. But the more of the hidden blueprint of life he uncovered, the harder the universe seemed to try to thwart him. In time, he would be credited with discovering nearly a fifth of the fish known to humans in his day. That’s how I felt: Her book took me to strange depths I never imagined, and I was smitten.” - The New York Times Book Reviewĭavid Starr Jordan was a taxonomist, a man possessed with bringing order to the natural world. “At one point, Miller dives into the ocean into a school of fish…comes up for air, and realizes she’s in love. A Best Book of 2020: The Washington Post * NPR * Chicago Tribune * SmithsonianĪ “remarkable” ( Los Angeles Times), “seductive” ( The Wall Street Journal) debut from the new cohost of Radiolab, Why Fish Don’t Exist is a dark and astonishing tale of love, chaos, scientific obsession, and-possibly-even murder.
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