Books Left Behind: The Mind of John Tooby

Following the passing of the accomplished evolutionary psychology co-founder Dr. John Tooby (1952-2023), his extensive personal book collection remained on the UCSB campus. Thus, offering a unique opportunity to explore the intellectual influences that shaped his scholarship. In a two person research team, we systematically examined each book of the 1000+ collection for annotations, cataloged them into an online library database, then organized the books by genre to be rehomed. Our preliminary findings suggest that the areas of greatest influence within Dr. Tooby’s library are anthropology, psychology, and biology, as evidenced by both the prevalence of texts and frequency of annotations. Unexpected was the inclusion of personal notes between himself and co-founder/wife Dr. Leda Cosmides, displaying their softer personal histories amongst the rigorous texts. This project highlights how personal academic libraries can serve as valuable archival resources for understanding scholarly development.