Simon LeVay's novel, The Donation of Constantine
About the Author
Simon LeVay is a British-born neuroscientist and writer. Educated at Cambridge University and the University of Göttingen, Germany, he has served on the faculties of Harvard Medical School and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He is best know for his research and writings on the biological basis of sexual orientation.
LeVay writes: "In the early 1960s, as a teenager, I was arrested and jailed briefly, along with the renowned 90-year-old philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell. (The occasion was an anti-war demonstration.) This lead to my reading Russell's History of Western Philosophy. Only one paragraph in that long book stuck in my memory: it dealt with the mysterious 8th-century forgery known as the Donation of Constantine. Intrigue, papal politics, winter journeys, bloody battles -- maybe even a hint of bodice-ripping! What a great topic for a novel, I thought. Fifty years later, I wrote it."
LeVay is the author of 11 previous books, including the New York Times bestseller, When Science Goes Wrong. The Donation of Constantine is his second novel. LeVay lives in West Hollywood, California.
