Reviewing In Darwin's Shadow for RNCSE (2003 Mar/Apr; 23 [2]: 36–7), Aubrey Manning wrote, "This is a distinguished and scholarly biography with excellent coverage of the science. Shermer is concerned with the history of evolutionary ideas and uses the interaction between Wallace, Darwin, and others to great effect. He goes beyond this to examine the extraordinary range of Wallace's interests and how they came to dominate different stages of his life." A prolific author and a regular columnist for Scientific American, Michael Shermer is also the founder of the Skeptics Society and the publisher of Skeptic magazine.