The eminent poet Philip Appleman died on April 11, 2020, at the age of 93, according to The Humanist. Fascinated by Darwin's life and work, Appleman edited the Norton Critical Edition Darwin, originally published in 1970 and updated in 1994 and again in 2000, and wrote two books of poems about Darwin, Darwin's Ark (1984) and Darwin's Bestiary (1986). In his poetry, according to Stephen Jay Gould, Appleman "captured the elusive themes of Darwin's worldview and translated them into items of beauty that also provoke thought." Appleman was awarded NCSE's Friend of Darwin award in 2002.
In the preface to the 2000 edition of Darwin, Appleman reflected on the problem of creationism. "I happened to be conceived in the same month in 1925 that John Thomas Scopes was indicted for the crime of teaching evolution to the schoolchildren of Dayton, Tennessee," he wrote. "In due course I was born in the same month that the legislature of Mississippi, also under pressure from fundamentalists, passed an antievolution law similar to the one in Tennessee. ... By the time I started school, the fundamentalists, continuing their non-stop crusade against science, had caused antievolutionary laws to be passed in Arkansas and Florida, and were agitating for similar laws in other states. ... So in twelve years of education, including a high school course in biology, I never once heard the name of Darwin or the word evolution." He added, "It would be gratifying if all that were now changed; but unfortunately the creationist political lobbying is continuing and intensifying. ... Obviously, the scientific and educational community needs to maintain constant vigilance and a vigorous program of public information and public advocacy, if factual knowledge and common sense are to prevail over ignorance and superstition."
Appleman was born in Kendallville, Indiana, on February 8, 1926. He served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II and in the Merchant Marine thereafter. He earned his B.S. in English from Northwestern University in 1950, his A.M. in English from the University of Michigan in 1951, and his Ph.D. in English from Northwestern University in 1955. He taught at Indiana University from 1955, and as Distinguished Professor of English from 1982, till 1986. His honors include the Castagnola Award from the Poetry Society of America and a fellowship in poetry from the National Endowment from the Arts, both in 1975.
