This copy is the usual issue correctly dated 1860 on the title page (a very few copies only have 1859), of “the most influential scientific work of the 19th century” (Horblit) and “certainly the most important biological book ever written” (Freeman), in which Darwin explained his concept of evolutionary adaptation through natural selection, which would become the foundation of modern evolutionary theory. Darwin’s Origin was first published in 1859. The second edition substantially reprinted the text of the first edition with a few authorial changes, for example the misprint ‘speceies’ is corrected, with the most notable being the dilution of Darwin’s “whale-bear” story, where he speculated that a bear scooping insects from the water may evolve into a whale-like creature. The hypothesis was seen as absurd at the time and was seized upon by Darwin’s critics to ridicule and criticize both the scientist and his evolutionary theory; Charles Lyell advised him to remove it entirely. “This story is not found again in any printing, except in the American editions of 1860, until the end of copyright” (Freeman). All copies of the second edition, save for those few dated 1859, are marked “fifth thousand” on the title page, noting the total issue of copies from the first edition onwards; the edition is not otherwise noted as the second edition. It was published, in the form in which it is typically seen, on 7 January 1860 in a print run of 3,000 copies. “The publication of the Origin of Species ushered in a new era in our thinking about the nature of man. The intellectual revolution it caused and the impact it had on man’s concept of himself and the world were greater than those caused by the works of Copernicus, Newton, and the great physicists of more recent times . . . Every modern discussion of man’s future, the population explosion, the struggle for existence, the purpose of man and the universe, and man’s place in nature rests on Darwin” (Ernst Mayr). Octavo signed and sewn in twelves. Original diagonal-wave- grain green cloth by Edmonds & Remnants (their ticket to rear pastedown), spine gilt-lettered, covers blocked in blind, light brown endpapers, fore edge untrimmed. Folding diagram to face p. 117; Murray’s 32 pp. general list advertisements at rear, dated January 1860. Ownership inscription as noted to front pastedown; John Fiske’s “Darwin Analyzed” tipped onto the first page of contents. Spine and corners bumped and rubbed, two short splits to joints neatly closed, front inner hinge just cracked at foot, internally clean, a very good copy. ¶ Freeman 376 (variant a). See Horblit 23b (first edition). £10,000 [154795]
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40 DARWIN, Charles. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. London: John Murray, 1860 William Boyd Dawkins’s copy of the most influential scientific work of the 19th century Second edition, an excellent association copy, from the library of the notable British geologist and archaeologist William Boyd Dawkins (1837– 1829), with his strictly contemporary ownership inscription on the front pastedown, “W. B. Dawkins, Westonzoyland Vicarag [ sic ]”. At publication date, Dawkins had recently moved to Somerset to study Classics with the vicar of Wookey, where he made his first important discoveries by leading excavations of the hyena den at Wookey Hole Caves.
Dawkins corresponded extensively with Darwin between 1867 and 1875. In January 1868, Darwin sent Dawkins a presentation copy of The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication . Dawkins reciprocated with a presentation copy of his own Cave Hunting: Researches on the Evidences of Caves Respecting the Early Inhabitants of Europe (1874). In 1862, Dawkins graduated with a second in Classics and a first in Natural Sciences from Jesus College, Oxford, and joined the Geological Survey of Great Britain where he spent seven years working on the areas of Kent and the Thames Valley. In 1869, he was elected a member of the Geological Society and appointed Curator of the Manchester Museum, a position he held until 1890. In 1870, he took a further appointment as a lecturer at Owens College, Manchester, eventually becoming the first Professor of Geology in 1874.
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