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In 1936, aged seven, Edward Osborne Wilson was struck in the right eye by the spine of a pinfish off the Florida coast, and the sight in that eye never recovered. He grew up to be the world’s leading authority on ants, taught at Harvard from 1956 to 1996, and won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction twice. His 1975 book Sociobiology set off one of the angriest scientific arguments of its decade; in 1978 protesters poured water over him at a science conference. In his later books he turned from explaining life to defending it, and proposed that half the planet be set aside for nature. This guide covers his 13 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 13 key books · 1971–2016 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
E.O. Wilson published more than 30 books. The best known are Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975), the Pulitzer winners On Human Nature (1978) and The Ants (1990, with Bert Hölldobler), The Diversity of Life (1992), Consilience (1998) and Half-Earth (2016). Start with his memoir Naturalist (1994), which tells how the ant specialist from Alabama came to write all of them.
Where to Start with E.O. Wilson
If you want his life and ideas in one book
→ Naturalist (1994) — the 1994 memoir, from Alabama boyhood to Harvard.
If you want the book that started the argument
→ Sociobiology (1975) — the 1975 synthesis and its chapter on humans.
If you want the case for saving biodiversity
→ The Diversity of Life (1992) — extinction and why it matters.
If you want his big idea about knowledge
→ Consilience (1998) — the sciences and humanities as one project.
13 E.O. Wilson Books, in Order
The Insect Societies
A synthesis of everything then known about the social insects: ants, bees, wasps and termites, from caste and communication to colony life. Its closing chapter proposed applying the same methods to social vertebrates, the step that led directly to Sociobiology.
Sociobiology
A large textbook that set out to explain social behaviour across the animal kingdom through natural selection. Most of it is about insects and other animals, but its final chapter, “Man: From Sociobiology to Sociology”, applied the theory to humans. That chapter drew an open letter of protest from the Sociobiology Study Group in 1975 and made the book the centre of a long public dispute.
On Human Nature
Wilson’s attempt to carry sociobiology over to human beings for a general reader, with chapters on aggression, sex, altruism and religion. It won the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.
Biophilia
A short, personal book that gave a borrowed word its modern meaning. Wilson defined biophilia as the “innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes” and argued that this affinity is part of human nature. The idea was later developed in The Biophilia Hypothesis (1993), which he edited with Stephen R. Kellert.
The Ants
A comprehensive reference on the biology of ants, written with the German entomologist Bert Hölldobler: their anatomy, communication, social organisation and the classification of their genera. It won the 1991 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, an unusual award for a technical scientific monograph.
The Diversity of Life
An account for general readers of how the variety of species on Earth came about, how much of it is still unknown and how fast human activity is destroying it. Wilson moves from evolution and mass extinctions in the deep past to the current loss of habitats and what could be done to slow it.
Naturalist
Wilson’s memoir, from a childhood spent in the woods and swamps of Alabama and Florida, including the accident that damaged his right eye, to his career at Harvard. It covers his fieldwork on ants and the scientific and political battles over Sociobiology. In 2020 it was adapted as a graphic novel.
Consilience
Wilson borrows the word consilience, literally a “jumping together” of knowledge, to argue that the natural sciences, social sciences, arts and ethics can be linked into one body of explanation. The book was widely read and widely criticised; Stephen Jay Gould replied in The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister’s Pox, and Wendell Berry in Life Is a Miracle.
The Future of Life
A survey of the state of the world’s species and ecosystems at the start of the century, and of practical ways to protect them. It opens with a letter from Wilson to Henry David Thoreau at Walden Pond.
The Creation
Written as a series of letters to an imagined Southern Baptist pastor, the book asks people of faith and secular scientists to set aside their differences over origins and work together to protect the natural world.
The Social Conquest of Earth
Wilson argues that humans and social insects reached dominance on Earth by the same route, through group living, and that group selection rather than kin selection explains it. The argument, which reversed views he had once supported, drew sharp disagreement from other evolutionary biologists, among them Richard Dawkins.
The Meaning of Human Existence
A short collection of essays on where humanity came from and what it is, written for general readers. Wilson argues that history makes no sense without prehistory, and that science and the humanities need each other to answer the question in the title.
Half-Earth
Wilson’s proposal for halting the extinction crisis: protect half of the Earth’s surface, on land and at sea, for the rest of life. The book surveys the species at risk and the places that would matter most, and gave its name to the Half-Earth Project of the E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation.
In What Order to Read E.O. Wilson
None of Wilson’s books depends on another, so you can read by subject. In publication order they fall into three phases: the scientific syntheses of the 1970s, built on his work with ants; the books on human nature and the unity of knowledge that grew out of them; and, from the 1990s on, the books arguing for the protection of biodiversity.
The two Pulitzer winners are very different reads. On Human Nature is a short book for anyone; The Ants is a large technical reference, best browsed rather than read through. For a lighter way into the ants, try Journey to the Ants (1994) or Tales from the Ant World (2020).
A reading path
1. Naturalist (1994)
2. On Human Nature (1978)
3. The Diversity of Life (1992)
4. Consilience (1998)
5. Half-Earth (2016)
Everything Else E.O. Wilson Published
Beyond the 13 key books: 16 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Science and theory
6
6 books · 1967–2019
- 1967The Theory of Island Biogeographythe founding text of island biogeography, with Robert H. MacArthur
- 1981Genes, Mind and Cultureon gene-culture coevolution, with Charles Lumsden
- 1983Promethean Firea shorter account of gene-culture coevolution, with Charles Lumsden
- 1990Success and Dominance in Ecosystemson the social insects as an ecological force
- 1993The Biophilia Hypothesisedited with Stephen R. Kellert
- 2019Genesison the deep origins of human societies
Books about ants
5
5 books · 1994–2020
- 1994Journey to the Antsa shorter, popular version of The Ants, with Bert Hölldobler
- 2003Pheidole in the New Worlda monograph on one of the largest ant genera
- 2009The Superorganismon ant colonies as units of selection, with Bert Hölldobler
- 2011The Leafcutter Antswith Bert Hölldobler
- 2020Tales from the Ant Worldstories from a lifetime of fieldwork
Fiction, essays and other books
5
5 books · 1996–2020
- 1996In Search of Natureessays, with Laura Simonds Southworth
- 2010Anthillhis only novel
- 2014A Window on Eternityon Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique
- 2017The Origins of Creativityon science and the humanities
- 2020Naturalist: A Graphic Adaptationhis memoir as a graphic novel, by Jim Ottaviani and C.M. Butzer
The years · 1929–2021
Quick facts about E.O. Wilson
- Known for
- E.O. Wilson is known as the world’s leading expert on ants, the founder of sociobiology and one of the most prominent advocates for protecting the planet’s biodiversity.
- 1929
- Born in Birmingham, Alabama
- 1956
- Joins the Harvard faculty
- 1975
- Sociobiology
- 1991
- Second Pulitzer, for The Ants
- 2021
- Dies in Burlington, Massachusetts, aged 92
- Born
- 10 June 1929, Birmingham, Alabama
- Died
- 26 December 2021, Burlington, Massachusetts
- Education
- University of Alabama (BS 1949, MS 1950); PhD, Harvard, 1955
- Harvard
- On the faculty from 1956 to 1996
- Prizes
- Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction (1979, 1991); Crafoord Prize (1990)
- Married
- Irene Kelley, in 1955; she died in August 2021
The red mark is 1975: Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, the book that made him famous and controversial.
How E.O. Wilson Writes: From Ants to Everything
Wilson’s writing starts in the field. His doctoral thesis at Harvard was a revision of a single ant genus, Lasius, and decades later he was still classifying ants, in a monograph on the genus Pheidole (2003). Even his broadest books return to concrete animals and places: the ant colony, the rainforest, an Alabama childhood.
His other habit is synthesis. Sociobiology and Consilience both try to pull scattered fields into one framework, and their subtitles say so: “The New Synthesis” and “The Unity of Knowledge”. This ambition is also what his critics, from Richard Lewontin and Stephen Jay Gould to Wendell Berry, most often attacked.
In his later books he wrote more directly to the reader, often in the form of a letter: to Thoreau in The Future of Life, to a Baptist pastor in The Creation, to a young scientist in his 2012 TEDMED talk and the book that followed. The aim of these books is practical: to persuade people to protect what is left of the natural world.
Watch
E.O. Wilson on Anthill
Belva Davis interviews E.O. Wilson for KQED’s This Week in 2010 about his lifelong study of ants, his first novel Anthill and how people can protect the natural world. From the official KQED channel.
Frequently asked questions about E.O. Wilson’s books
How many books has E.O. Wilson written?
More than 30, including co-written and edited volumes. This page lists 29 of them: the 13 key books, from The Insect Societies (1971) to Half-Earth (2016), and 16 others, from The Theory of Island Biogeography (1967) to Tales from the Ant World (2020).
What are E.O. Wilson’s books in order?
The key books are The Insect Societies (1971), Sociobiology (1975), On Human Nature (1978), Biophilia (1984), The Ants (1990), The Diversity of Life (1992), Naturalist (1994), Consilience (1998), The Future of Life (2002), The Creation (2006), The Social Conquest of Earth (2012), The Meaning of Human Existence (2014) and Half-Earth (2016).
Where should I start with E.O. Wilson?
With Naturalist (1994), his memoir, which covers his life from boyhood in Alabama to Harvard and explains where each of his big ideas came from. If you would rather start with his science, On Human Nature and The Diversity of Life are both written for general readers.
What is E.O. Wilson’s most famous book?
Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975), the book that founded the field and caused the most controversy. His two Pulitzer winners, On Human Nature and The Ants, are also among his best known.
Which E.O. Wilson books won the Pulitzer Prize?
Two: On Human Nature (1978), which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 1979, and The Ants (1990), written with Bert Hölldobler, which won it in 1991.
Why was E.O. Wilson controversial?
In 1975 the Sociobiology Study Group, whose members included his Harvard colleagues Richard Lewontin and Stephen Jay Gould, published an open letter against Sociobiology, accusing its chapter on humans of biological determinism; Wilson replied in BioScience in 1976. In February 1978 protesters poured water over him at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, an attack Gould and Science for the People condemned. A second debate began after his death in December 2021, when a Scientific American essay by Monica McLemore questioned his legacy and other scientists objected in an open letter. In early 2022 researchers published letters from the 1980s and 1990s, found in his papers at the Library of Congress, in which he supported and defended the psychologist J. Philippe Rushton, known for claims of genetic differences between racial groups. Some read the letters as sympathy for those ideas, others as a defence of academic freedom. The E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation issued a statement rejecting his support of Rushton. Wilson himself wrote in 1981 that “no justification for racism is to be found in the truly scientific study of the biological basis of social behavior.”
Is E.O. Wilson still alive?
No. He died on 26 December 2021 in Burlington, Massachusetts, aged 92. His wife, Irene, had died in August of the same year.
What is Half-Earth?
The proposal in his 2016 book Half-Earth: to protect half of the Earth’s land and sea for nature in order to halt the extinction of species. The E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation runs the Half-Earth Project to work towards it.
Has any E.O. Wilson book been adapted?
His memoir Naturalist was adapted in 2020 as a graphic novel, Naturalist: A Graphic Adaptation, by Jim Ottaviani and the illustrator C.M. Butzer.
Did E.O. Wilson write fiction?
Once. Anthill (2010), his only novel, is about a boy from Alabama who grows up to defend a stretch of wild land, and includes a long section told from the point of view of ant colonies.
Footnotes
- E. O. Wilson — Wikipedia
- Edward O. Wilson — Encyclopedia of Alabama
- Consilience (book) — Wikipedia
- Biophilia hypothesis — Wikipedia
- New Evidence Revives Old Questions About E.O. Wilson and Race — Undark, 2022
- E. O. Wilson dies at 92 — NCSE, 2021
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“The innate tendency to focus on life and lifelike processes.”
— E.O. Wilson, defining biophilia in Biophilia (1984)
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