Desmond Morris is a very interesting character in his own right. He’s famous not only for his work as a zoologist, scholar of human behaviour but also for his work as a surrealist artist and an author.

I was delighted to discover earlier today that Morris released another book, Amazing Baby, just last month. (I’ll admit the cover caught my eye before I noticed his name!) If you’re as intrigued as I am about what goes on in the minds of those new to our world, this promises to be a great book.

“Amazing Baby is a discovery tour through a baby’s first two years. The story progresses from the moment of conception through each phase of development in the womb and beyond as the baby is born and matures into a talking, walking individual with a unique personality. “

The sale also included a phone book for New Haven, Conn., that was issued in 1878, two years after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Auctioneers had expected the phone book to fetch between $30,000 and $40,000, but the price skyrocketed to $170,500 in a bidding war among six collectors.

May, who has a Ph.D in astrophysics, co-wrote the book with Chris Lintott and Patrick Moore (who is also a bit of a rock star as far as astronomers go).

One copy from that signing is available here.

1. Farthest North – Steve Jones, geneticist
2. The Art of the Soluble - V. S. Ramachandran, neuroscientist
3. Animal Liberation - Jane Goodall, primatologist
4. The Foundation trilogy - Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist
5. Alice in Wonderland - Alison Gopnik, developmental psychologist
6. One, Two, Three… Infinity - Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist
7. The Idea of a Social Science - Harry Collins, sociologist of science
8. Handbook of Mathematical Functions - Peter Atkins, chemist
9. The Mind of a Mnemonist – Oliver Sacks, neurologist
10. A Mathematician’s Apology - Marcus du Sautoy, mathematician
11. The Leopard - Susan Greenfield, neurophysiologist
12. Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior - Frans de Waal, psychologist and ethologist
13. Catch-22 / The First Three Minutes - Lawrence Krauss, physicist
14. William James, Writings 1878-1910 – Daniel Everett, linguist
15. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep – Chris Frith, neuroscientist
16. The Naked Ape – Elaine Morgan, author of The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis
17. King Solomon’s Ring - Marian Stamp Dawkins, Zoologist