story identification - A book in which every species on earth was rendered intelligent

The 'blurb' on the back of the book was that something had boosted the intelligence of every creature on earth, to the point that at least some animals were on par with humans. I'm not sure if humans were similarly enhanced or just animals. I'm not sure whether it was done by aliens, or a side effect of something humans did, or what.

This book was on the shelves in the mid/late 1980's, so it's nothing more recent than that.

Answer

It sounds like Poul Anderson's Brain Wave, a minor classic. The book first came out in 1954, but has been reprinted many times.

Here's the Wikipedia article. Does this sound like the plot?

And an isfdb link. This is the cover I remember from the 70s (It's probably the cover from the 80s as well, since the artist is the same.) Does this look like the cover?

Comments

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