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On 14 February 1990, at Carl Sagan’s urging, NASA turned Voyager 1 around and photographed Earth from more than six billion kilometres away: a single pale dot in a band of scattered sunlight. Sagan, the Cornell astronomer born in Brooklyn in 1934, had spent two decades making that kind of perspective his subject. He helped design the plaque on Pioneer 10 and the Golden Record on Voyager, won a Pulitzer Prize for a book about the evolution of the brain, and in 1980 presented Cosmos, a thirteen-part television series seen by at least 500 million people in 60 countries. His companion book became the best-selling science book in English up to that time. This guide covers his 13 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 13 key books · 1966–2006 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Carl Sagan’s best-known books are Cosmos (1980), The Dragons of Eden (1977), which won the Pulitzer Prize, Pale Blue Dot (1994) and The Demon-Haunted World (1995); he also wrote one novel, Contact (1985). Start with Cosmos, the book of the television series. Below you will find all 13 key books in order, and a reading path through them.
Where to Start with Carl Sagan
If you want the book that made him famous
→ Cosmos (1980) — the companion to the 1980 television series.
If you want to think more clearly
→ Billions and Billions (1997) — including his “baloney detection kit”.
If you want a novel
→ Contact (1985) — the SETI story filmed in 1997 with Jodie Foster.
If you want the Pulitzer winner
→ The Dragons of Eden (1977) — the evolution of the human brain.
13 Carl Sagan Books, in Order
Intelligent Life in the Universe
An expanded English version of a book by the Soviet astrophysicist Iosif Shklovskii, first published in Russian in 1962, with Sagan adding long sections of his own. It surveys the origin of the universe, of planets and of life, and asks how likely technical civilisations elsewhere might be and how we could contact them.
The Cosmic Connection
Sagan’s first book written for a general audience, produced by Jerome Agel with artwork by Jon Lomberg and others. In short chapters he discusses the planets, the chances of intelligent life elsewhere, how civilisations might communicate, and why he considered astrology a pseudoscience. An expanded edition appeared in 2000.
The Dragons of Eden
A book about how the human brain evolved, from brain-to-body-mass ratios and chimpanzees learning sign language to sleep, dreams and the possibility that ancient fears shaped our dragon myths. It opens with the “Cosmic Calendar”, which compresses the history of the universe into one year, so that humans appear late on 31 December. It won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction.
Murmurs of Earth
The story of the Golden Record carried by the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977, told by the team that chose its contents under Sagan’s direction: greetings in many languages, music from around the world, natural sounds and encoded images of life on Earth.
Broca’s Brain
A collection of essays on science and its uses and abuses: robots and machine intelligence, the search for life elsewhere, the planets, and pseudoscience, including a long critique of Immanuel Velikovsky’s claims about Venus. The title essay starts from the preserved brain of the nineteenth-century anatomist Paul Broca.
Cosmos
The companion to the PBS series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, in thirteen illustrated chapters, one per episode: from Eratosthenes measuring the Earth to the evolution of life, Kepler and the planets, the life of stars and the search for other civilisations. It spent 70 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list, sold about five million copies worldwide and won the 1981 Hugo Award for Best Non-Fiction Book.
Contact
His only novel, which began as a screenplay he wrote with Ann Druyan in 1979. Ellie Arroway, a radio astronomer working on SETI, detects a signal from the star Vega that contains prime numbers and, eventually, plans for a machine. Simon & Schuster paid a 2 million dollar advance in 1981; the novel won the 1986 Locus Award for Best First Novel and was filmed in 1997 by Robert Zemeckis, with Jodie Foster.
Comet
Written with Ann Druyan ahead of the return of Halley’s Comet in 1986: what comets are made of, where they come from, and how people have feared, studied and explained them through history.
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
A history of life on Earth told in search of human nature: Sagan and Druyan trace traits we think of as human back to where they first appear in other species. The last chapters look closely at the primates and compare us with our nearest living relatives.
Pale Blue Dot
Named after the photograph of Earth that Voyager 1 took at his urging on 14 February 1990, from about six billion kilometres away. Sagan uses the image to argue against human self-importance, then sets out why he thought humanity’s long-term future lay in exploring and eventually settling other worlds.
The Demon-Haunted World
A defence of scientific thinking against pseudoscience, with chapters on witch hunts, UFO abductions, faith healing and recovered memories. It contains the “baloney detection kit”, a set of tools for testing claims, and the parable of the invisible dragon in his garage. Ann Druyan co-wrote four of the 25 chapters.
Billions and Billions
His last book, published after his death in December 1996: essays on exponential growth, global warming, the population explosion, extraterrestrial life and the abortion debate. The final chapter describes his illness, myelodysplasia, and Ann Druyan wrote the epilogue.
The Varieties of Scientific Experience
The Gifford Lectures on natural theology that Sagan gave at the University of Glasgow in 1985, edited by Ann Druyan and published ten years after his death. He sets what astronomy has revealed about the universe against traditional ideas of God, and asks what evidence for a creator would look like.
In What Order to Read Carl Sagan
Nothing in Sagan continues from one book to the next, so you can read by subject: the planets and the search for life, the evolution of the brain, the defence of science. Publication order shows a shift, though: the early books are about what might be out there, the later ones about what humans should do with what they know.
Cosmos is the hub; most of his other books expand one of its chapters. Pale Blue Dot reads as its sequel, and The Demon-Haunted World is the book to read if you want his method rather than his subject matter.
A reading path
1. Cosmos (1980)
2. The Dragons of Eden (1977)
3. Pale Blue Dot (1994)
4. The Demon-Haunted World (1995)
5. Contact (1985)
Everything Else Carl Sagan Published
Beyond the 13 key books: 7 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
Science books and anthologies
5
5 books · 1961–1975
- 1961The Atmospheres of Mars and Venusa technical monograph, with W. W. Kellogg
- 1966Planetsa Life Science Library volume, with Jonathan Norton Leonard
- 1972UFO’s: A Scientific Debateedited with Thornton Page
- 1973Mars and the Mind of Mana panel with Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Bruce Murray and Walter Sullivan
- 1975Other Worldsa short illustrated book on the planets
Books on nuclear war
2
2 books · 1984–1990
- 1984The Cold and the Dark: The World After Nuclear Warwith Paul Ehrlich, Donald Kennedy and Walter Orr Roberts
- 1990A Path Where No Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Racewith Richard Turco, who coined the term “nuclear winter”
The years · 1934–1996
Quick facts about Carl Sagan
- Known for
- Making astronomy and the scientific way of thinking popular with a mass audience, above all through the 1980 television series Cosmos
- 1934
- Born in Brooklyn, New York
- 1960
- PhD in astronomy, University of Chicago
- 1980
- Cosmos
- 1996
- Dies in Seattle, aged 62
- Born
- 9 November 1934, Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York
- Education
- University of Chicago; PhD in astronomy and astrophysics, 1960
- Worked
- Cornell University, full professor from 1970 and David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences from 1976 until his death
- Married
- Lynn Margulis (1957), Linda Salzman (1968) and Ann Druyan (1981), his co-writer on several books and on Cosmos
- Honours
- Pulitzer Prize (1978), NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal (1977), National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal (1994)
- Died
- 20 December 1996, Seattle, of pneumonia after two years with myelodysplasia
The red mark is 1980: Cosmos, the television series and the book that made him the best-known scientist in America.
How Carl Sagan Writes: Science as a Way of Thinking
Sagan builds his books on scale. The Dragons of Eden opens by squeezing the history of the universe into a single calendar year, with all of recorded history in its last ten seconds; Pale Blue Dot is built around one photograph in which the Earth is less than a pixel. The device is always the same: show the reader a number or an image big enough to change how a familiar thing looks.
He tells science as history, through the people who did it. Cosmos moves from Eratosthenes measuring the Earth with a stick and a shadow to Kepler and the Library of Alexandria, and the emphasis is on how they knew rather than what they found. That is also the subject of The Demon-Haunted World, where the “baloney detection kit” turns the method into a checklist of questions anyone can ask.
From the late 1970s much of his work was written with Ann Druyan, who co-wrote Cosmos, Comet, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors and the story behind Contact, and who finished his last books after his death. Not every scientist approved: some colleagues found his speculation fanciful and his fame a distraction, and Harvard refused him tenure in 1968.
Watch
Carl Sagan on The Age of Exploration
Carl Sagan gives a lecture titled The Age of Exploration at a 1994 Cornell University symposium marking his 60th birthday; the recording was restored and released by Cornell in 2018. From the official Carl Sagan Institute channel.
Frequently asked questions about Carl Sagan’s books
How many books has Carl Sagan written?
About thirty titles carry his name if you count edited volumes and scientific reports. This page lists twenty: the 13 key books, from Intelligent Life in the Universe (1966) to The Varieties of Scientific Experience (2006), and seven others, including his two books on nuclear winter. He also published more than 600 scientific papers and articles.
What are Carl Sagan’s books in order?
Intelligent Life in the Universe (1966), The Cosmic Connection (1973), The Dragons of Eden (1977), Murmurs of Earth (1978), Broca’s Brain (1979), Cosmos (1980), Contact (1985), Comet (1985), Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1992), Pale Blue Dot (1994), The Demon-Haunted World (1995), Billions and Billions (1997) and The Varieties of Scientific Experience (2006).
Where should I start with Carl Sagan?
Cosmos (1980). It covers most of the subjects he returned to throughout his career, and you can watch the television episodes alongside it. If you care more about how to think than about astronomy, start with The Demon-Haunted World.
What is Carl Sagan’s most famous book?
Cosmos, the companion to his 1980 PBS series. It spent 70 weeks on The New York Times best-seller list, sold about five million copies worldwide and was the best-selling science book in English until Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time.
Did Carl Sagan win a Pulitzer Prize?
Yes. The Dragons of Eden won the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 1978. Cosmos won the Hugo Award for Best Non-Fiction Book in 1981, and the television series won two Emmy Awards and a Peabody Award.
Is Contact based on a book?
Yes, on Sagan’s only novel, Contact (1985), which he developed from a 1979 film treatment written with Ann Druyan. The film, directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Jodie Foster as Ellie Arroway, opened in July 1997. Sagan worked on it until his death in December 1996, and it is dedicated “For Carl”.
Is Carl Sagan still alive?
No. He died on 20 December 1996 in Seattle, aged 62, of pneumonia after two years with myelodysplasia, a bone-marrow disease. Billions and Billions (1997) and The Varieties of Scientific Experience (2006) were published after his death.
What is the Pale Blue Dot?
A photograph of Earth taken by Voyager 1 on 14 February 1990 from about six billion kilometres away, in which the planet is a tiny speck. Sagan had pushed NASA to take it, and it gave its name to his 1994 book Pale Blue Dot.
Did Carl Sagan say “billions and billions”?
Not in those words. The phrase became attached to him, but he said “billions upon billions”; he later adopted it as the title of his last book, Billions and Billions (1997), whose introduction discusses it.
Was Carl Sagan controversial?
In several documented ways. Harvard denied him tenure in 1968, after the chemist Harold Urey argued against him. After his death, Keay Davidson’s 1999 biography revealed that Sagan was “Mr. X”, the anonymous author of an essay on his own cannabis use in Marihuana Reconsidered (1971). He was arrested twice in 1986–87 at protests at the Nevada Test Site, and in the 1990s he took Apple to court over a computer it had code-named “Carl Sagan”; the case was settled in 1995.
Footnotes
- Carl Sagan — Wikipedia
- Books — carlsagan.com
- Cosmos (Sagan book) — Wikipedia
- Contact (novel) — Wikipedia
- Pale Blue Dot — Wikipedia
- Cosmos — Kirkus Reviews, 1980
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 Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be.”
— Carl Sagan, Cosmos (1980), the first line of the book
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