Ann Druyan

Author profile

born

June 13, 1949 in The United States

gender

female

genre

Science, Nonfiction, Religion & Spirituality

influences

Carl Sagan, Immanuel Velikovsky, Erich Anton Paul von Däniken

About this author

edit data

Ann Druyan (born June 13, 1949) is an American author and media producer known for her involvement in many projects aiming to popularize and explain science. She is probably best-known as the last wife of Carl Sagan, and co-author of the Cosmos series and book, along with Sagan and Steven Soter.

In her writings, Druyan has stressed the idea that people can have a sense of awe and wonder about the unity of the cosmos without introducing the concept of a god.

Druyan wrote the books Comet and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, as well as sections of The Demon-Haunted World, with her late husband Carl Sagan. In addition, she wrote an introduction to The Cosmic Connection and the epilogue to Billions and Billions, both by Sagan. Alone, she wrote the...more Ann Druyan (born June 13, 1949) is an American author and media producer known for her involvement in many projects aiming to popularize and explain science. She is probably best-known as the last wife of Carl Sagan, and co-author of the Cosmos series and book, along with Sagan and Steven Soter.

In her writings, Druyan has stressed the idea that people can have a sense of awe and wonder about the unity of the cosmos without introducing the concept of a god.

Druyan wrote the books Comet and Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, as well as sections of The Demon-Haunted World, with her late husband Carl Sagan. In addition, she wrote an introduction to The Cosmic Connection and the epilogue to Billions and Billions, both by Sagan. Alone, she wrote the novel A Famous Broken Heart.

In the areas of film and television, she was one of the writers for the television series Cosmos, and a producer of the film Contact. Most recently, she is the CEO and a co-founder of Cosmos Studios. In 2007 she was said to be working on an IMAX film on global warming as well as a sequel to Cosmos.

She has served on the Board of Directors of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws NORML for over 10 years, and is also the current president of the NORML Foundation Board of Directors.

Other projects that she has been involved in include the selection of the music on the Voyager Golden Record mounted on the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes, and the Cosmos 1 spacecraft, which intended to demonstrate solar sail propulsion. The Cosmos 1 used a former Soviet submarine missile as a launch vehicle (in keeping with the "swords into plowshares" philosophy) but due to a malfunction in separation, the Cosmos 1 never reached stable orbit.

In January 2007, she was a juror at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival in the jury responsible for selecting the winner of the Alfred P. Sloan Prize, given to films that focus on science and technology.

She attended and was a speaker at the Beyond Belief symposium in November 2006.(less)

combine editions
Books by Ann Druyan

Average rating: 4.31 · 18,463 ratings · 1,126 reviews · 10 distinct works

	A Famous Broken Heart: A Fantasy Novel 4.40 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1977	My rating:
	Passport to the Universe 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2006	My rating:
	The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan 4.34 avg rating — 9,492 ratings — published 1995 — 34 editions	My rating:
	Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan 4.22 avg rating — 2,456 ratings — published 1997 — 15 editions	My rating:
	Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective by Carl Sagan, Jerome Agel (Editor), Ann Druyan (Contributor) 4.11 avg rating — 268 ratings — 9 editions	My rating:
	Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan 4.29 avg rating — 844 ratings — published 1992 — 13 editions	My rating:
	Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Intersteller Record by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan 4.26 avg rating — 87 ratings — published 1978 — 8 editions	My rating:
	The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan (Editor) 4.31 avg rating — 1,836 ratings — published 2006 — 11 editions	My rating:
	Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan 4.32 avg rating — 3,746 ratings — published 1994 — 18 editions	My rating:
	Comet by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan 3.86 avg rating — 209 ratings — published 1985 — 11 editions	My rating:

More books by Ann Druyan…

Upcoming Events

No scheduled events. Add an event.

Quotes by Ann Druyan

“Ten long trips around the sun since I last saw that smile, but only joy and thankfulness that on a tiny world in the vastness, for a couple of moments in the immensity of time, we were one.”
― Ann Druyan

tags: ann-druyan , appreciation , carl-sagan , life , loss , love , memory , nostalgia , remember

27 people liked it

“Interviewer: "Didn't [Sagan] want to believe?"
Druyan: "He didn't want to believe. He wanted to know.”
― Ann Druyan

tags: agnosticism , astronomy , atheism , carl-sagan , science

13 people liked it

“It takes a fearless, unflinching love and deep humility to accept the universe as it is. The most effective way he knew to accomplish that, the most powerful tool at his disposal, was the scientific method, which over time winnows out deception. It can't give you absolute truth because science is a permanent revolution, always subject to revision, but it can give you successive approximations of reality.”
― Ann Druyan

tags: ann-druyan , carl-sagan , cosmos , fearless , humanity , humility , realitu , science , truth

12 people liked it

See all Ann Druyan's quotes »

Is this you? Let us know. If not, help out and invite Ann to Goodreads.

Add New
Videos

Ann's Fans (18)

Ann Druyan

Author profile

combine editions
Books by Ann Druyan

Upcoming Events

Quotes by Ann Druyan

Add NewVideos

Ann's Fans (18)

Ann Druyan

Author profile

combine editionsBooks by Ann Druyan

Upcoming Events

Quotes by Ann Druyan

Add New
Videos

combine editions
Books by Ann Druyan