'It's the most astonishing thing'

 

“Whatan astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree withflexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But oneglance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody deadfor thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly andsilently inside your head, directly to you." -Carl Sagan

 

Bornin New York City on Nov. 9, 1934 Sagan was an astronomer, cosmologist,astrophysicist and astrobiologist who also wrote more than 600 articles and wasauthor, co-author or editor of 20 books.  His novel Contact was thebasis for a popular movie, and he co-wrote and narrated Cosmos, oneof the most widely watched series in the history of American publictelevision.  He died of pneumonia at the young age of 61, but justbefore his death he spoke the wonderful words above about the power and mysteryof books.

 

Agraduate of the University of Chicago, where he earned three degrees, he was alongtime professor at Cornell University. Among his many popular science books were The Dragons of Eden,Broca’s Brain and Pale Blue Dot.  

 

“Writing,"Sagan said, "is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding togetherpeople who never knew each other; citizens of distant epochs.  Books break theshackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic."