THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
Sixth edition ("forty-third thousand") overall — and the first to use the term "evolution" to describe the mechanism of natural selection that Darwin introduced in the book.
Very good plus.
Price: $1,500.00
THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
"At the present day all naturalists admit evolution under some form."
"Evolution" — the word now most associated with THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES — was not used to describe natural selection in the publication until the sixth edition. By then, Darwin was well aware that he had a phenomenon on his hands with the title — it was time to widen his audience. The 6th edition was purposefully set in smaller type, slimming the book's profile and making it more affordable ("I have been told on authority which I can trust that [...] workmen club together to buy the Origin," Darwin noted of previous editions in correspondence in 1871). It also contains a glossary for the first time, making the text more accessible to a non-specialist audience.
Appropriately, this copy was once owned by James G. Mead, whale biologist and longtime curator of marine mammals at the Smithsonian. Mead is a particular proponent of the anatomical study of marine mammals, a method of examination that Darwin also favored; THE NEW YORK TIMES notes that Mead's use of this technique "has given scientists a detailed look at species that often can be observed only fleetingly in the wild."
A notable edition of an iconic work.
Read more: R. B. Freeman, The Works of Charles Darwin, item F391; Letter to John Murray 3 June 1871, The Darwin Correspondence Project; Jan Deblieu, "The Messy Science of Cetology," The New York Times Magazine 21 February 1993.
The Object
London: John Murray, 1892. Full title: The origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 7.5'' x 5''. Publisher's green cloth boards with gilt spine lettering. Floral patterned endpapers of the John Murray monogram. xxii, 432 pages, including index; folds from page 185 on are unopened. Small owner name to front flyleaf "J. G. Mead," dated Feb. 1972. Small owner name to title page "Jas Probert," dated July 1893. Binding with faint spotting to edges, light bumping to corners and spine ends. Light foxing to endpapers. Interior clean.
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