author
Sir John Lubbock
1834–1913
A Victorian polymath with a gift for making big ideas readable, he moved easily between science, politics, banking, and archaeology. His work helped popularize the study of prehistory and the natural world for a wide public.
3 Audiobooks
On the Origin and Metamorphoses of Insects
by Sir John Lubbock
The Pleasures of Life
by Sir John Lubbock
The Beauties of Nature, and the Wonders of the World We Live In
by Sir John Lubbock
About the author
Born in London in 1834, John Lubbock later became the 1st Baron Avebury and was known for much of his life as Sir John Lubbock. He was an English banker, Liberal politician, scientist, and author whose range was unusually wide even for the Victorian age.
He is especially remembered for writing accessible books on prehistoric archaeology, insects, and natural history. A friend and neighbor of Charles Darwin in Kent, he helped bring scientific subjects to general readers and played an important part in shaping how the public understood early human history.
Alongside his writing, he was active in Parliament and public life, where he supported a number of reforms. That mix of practical politics and energetic curiosity gives his books their distinctive character: informed, wide-ranging, and eager to open up the world to non-specialists.