A Personal Remembrance of Marjorie Grene

Profile Marjorie, Matriarchy, and “Wretched Reflection”: A Personal Remembrance of Marjorie Grene Vassiliki Betty Smocovitis people were honored as presidents (including Marjorie) at its Departments of Biology and History inception. University of Florida I attended the summer meetings organized by Marjorie Gainesville, FL, USA and Dick, mostly because of the stunning list of luminaries. As bsmocovi@ufl.edu a graduate student in ecology and evolutionary biology, keen on paleobotany, I was just too dazzled by the likes of Stephen J. Gould and Niles Eldredge to remember much else (this was at the peak of “punk eek” mania), but I do vaguely recall Marjorie That’s wretched. I don’t want to think about who I am! and Dick sitting together in rickety wooden chairs near the — Marjorie Grene, Interview with Benjamin R. Cohen, front row in a room absolutely crowded with bodies. It was The Believer, March 2009 later, in the winter months, that I finally met Marjorie, face to face, in Karl Niklas’s office. They were meeting regularly In biological terms, the word “matriarch” is associated with to read Willi Hennig’s work—then all the rage—in German. a particular kind of social organization, one where the female As my doctoral advisor, Karl wanted me to meet someone he serves as leader of the group. For those keen on the natural described as a “legend in her own time.” I vividly remember world, it oftentimes conjures up a huge, lumbering elephant, that meeting—she was seated in a chair immediately opposite gently guiding and protecting her progeny with her trunk, fol- him looking like a caricature of the eternal Radcliffe graduate, lowed by a group of female relatives and adolescents (while or a character out of an Iris Murdoch novel from the 1950s: all the while, the males are off being “rogue”). But the word short hair, plaid pleated skirt, black turtleneck, sensible shoes. in its Greek origination holds a deeper meaning, devoid of So small, that she had to raise her arms to pick up their reading elephants or even of the social organization of any animals. It material from his desk, Marjorie seemed to disappear into comes from the word mater, for mother, and archein, a difficult her chair. This was deceptive, I quickly realized, as her voice word to define that can mean origin, beginning, or even rule or boomed in fake indignation at hearing herself described in principle, as in first principle. Immediately translated, the word such an unimaginative cliche.´ She railed at him for some time, matriarch means a mother—a woman—who serves simultane- all with affection, of course, but then just as quickly focused ously as originator, ruler, guide, or perhaps the source of being her attention on me, asking about my research interests. She or point of origination. It is gendered to be sure, but that makes took an avid interest in younger people, especially women, a it even more appropriate for my remembrance of Marjorie. characteristic that has benefited many of us who were lucky For many of us at the International Society for His- enough to know Marjorie as young people. tory, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology (ISHPSSB), Her real interest became even more apparent, when a year Marjorie Grene served as a matriarch—a guide, a leader, the or so later, I told her that I had turned to the history of science, inspiration, the beginnings of our society. She was in fact in it and that I had chosen to work on the subject of botany and the from the start, not just in her intellectual efforts (more about evolutionary synthesis, thanks to the tutelage of Will Provine. that later) but also in organizing the first set of meetings at A campus visit by George Ledyard Stebbins in 1986 practically Cornell University with Dick Burian in the early 1980s that sealed our friendship, since he was Marjorie’s close friend (her eventually paved the way for the creation of ISHPSSB. She, description, not mine). Visiting Cornell for some three weeks incidentally, called it the “multi-lettered, multi-presidented so- to deliver a series of lectures, Ledyard sought out Marjorie ciety” because of its awkward name and because so many for good company. As his appointed “guide” (I was put in Biological Theory 4(2) 2009, 191–195. c 2010 Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research 191 Profile Marjorie, Matriarchy, and “Wretched Reflection” charge of hosting him for the period), I was lucky to be invited sure what to do with undergraduates, and dealt with anything to their lunches, dinners, and outings. That’s when I first saw she perceived as nonsense by shutting down discussion com- Marjorie’s warmth and eagerness to please her friends. She was pletely usually with a cutting remark; Marjorie just didn’t have a magnificent host—a wonderful cook, a sparkling conversa- the patience to deal with all this undergraduate stuff. To them, tionalist, and attentive to her guest’s every need. An evening she could be devastating, and they took it out on her with their with Marjorie in her comfy home was magical—you never teaching evaluations at the end of the semester, which were knew who would be seated next to you, and what extraordi- far meaner and more personal than anything she had said in nary story about some hugely famous person you would hear. class. I found it fascinating; the more she railed, the more Despite her scholarly reputation as a heavyweight, Marjorie intriguing it got, especially after I realized there was a pat- was a hopeless “people person”—keen on sharing memories tern to what set her off—most everything that I had learned and gossip just as much as she enjoyed sharing reading lists from L. Pearce Williams, the resident expert on the 18th- and and ideas. Marjorie loved Ledyard, I learned through all that, 19th-century European intellectual history with an emphasis because he was the one who “converted” her to evolution dur- on France. Marjorie’s critical comments weren’t actually per- ing their years at the University of California at Davis. At the sonal, but directed toward particular kinds of understanding of time, I had no idea that Marjorie needed such “conversion,” the European intellectual tradition, the kind that Pearce and his or that she had anything of “a past” devoid of her interests in predecessor Henry Guerlac had been teaching students of the evolution, because she seemed a per- history of science for decades at Cor- manent fixture in Cornell’s evolu- nell, and which stressed the view tionary community: she was a friend that science was embedded in West- of faculty, attended all available sem- ern culture (see Williams and Stef- inars in the Section of Ecology and fens 1968). And her real bugaboo, I Systematics, and occasionally even realized, was Rene´ Descartes, who gave a course or two. Pearce and Guerlac taught as be- I had actually taken one of those ing as crucial—absolutely crucial— in the fall of 1987, and literally to understanding the Western intel- jumped at the chance, even though lectual tradition. Both also stressed I was deeply into writing my doc- the importance of historiographic re- toral dissertation, which by then had flection and the art, rather than the become a biographical study of her science of history. Pearce was es- friend, Ledyard (she approved of that pecially adamant that history was decision heartily and shared her in- part of the humanities and took um- sights into Ledyard and the Davis brage at any suggestion that it was a scene every chance I gave her). As science that could be understood in I reflect on it, the course she gave in anything other than literary, interpre- Marjorie at Monticello, 1989. Photo by Betty Smocovitis. 1987 was a dream course—“Darwin tive, or humanistic terms.1 Marjorie, and 19th Century Philosophy.” She was keen on understand- I realized, had no time for all that—any such reflection was ing Darwin’s On the Origin of Species in the context of the “wretched” (her word) and any focus on history as interpretive philosophies of science articulated by William Whewell and or literary practice, any prolonged discussion of historiogra- John Herschel. Over the course of the semester, we read the phy, or any mention of historiographers like Hayden White, Origin, line by line, stopping to comment or discuss partic- whom she thought especially “confused,” made her go bal- ularities and possible interpretations. I still have that copy listic. She really didn’t participate in the formal activities of of the Origin, all marked, dog-eared and torn, and use it for the new history and philosophy of science and technology leading my own class discussions of the book. There were program he started (and in fact often referred to him as that only six people in that class: two of us were graduate students “awful” man, especially after she learned he was the campus (the other was Mary Bartley, another history of biology doc- conservative),2 besides, she had other “giants” of philosophy toral student then working on a history of sexual selection), she looked to, like Aristotle, the preferred philosopher of many while the remaining four were average Cornell undergradu- biologists (that’s an understatement, for sure), and her real in- ates. Clueless about Darwin, the Origin, philosophy, or who terests were more compatible with Cornell’s rich biological their teacher was, they just sat there and seemed only to come sciences programs, which were happy to have her.3 to life when Marjorie started railing at something, usually at So much for the “great thoughts of dead white men!” a casual remark made by someone in passing.

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