Clifford Dobell

I had long been fascinated by the idea of van Leeuwenhoek and his breakthroughs in microscopy, but the available books on him were few and far between. So I was delighted when I ran across this copy in a used bookstore. It was some biographical information, but it's mostly van Leeuwenhoek's own words, in the form of letters explaining his observations and experiments. Most helpfully, it was edited by a microbiologist who provided a lot of context in the form of footnotes identifying many of the organisms he was describing.

Not exactly casual reading, but for every section that got a little draggy, there was at least one more where van Leeuwenhoek's enthusiasm shone through and made reading a delight again.

Definitely not a book for everyone, but those who would be into it should be REALLY into it.… (meer)