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List of correspondents
Summary
Below is a list of Darwin's correspondents with the number of letters for each one. Click on a name to see the letters Darwin exchanged with that correspondent. "A child of God" (1) Abberley,…
Matches: 11 hits
- … Below is a list of Darwin's correspondents with the number of letters for each one. …
- … Arthur (1) Ainslie, O. A. (3) Airy, …
- … Allen, Grant (13) Allen, J. A. (b) (1) …
- … Athenæum (11) Atkin, J. R. (1) …
- … Bailey, W. W. (4) Baillie, A. F. (1) …
- … Baird, William (1) Baker, A. F. (1) …
- … K. S. (1) Barr, J. G. R. (1) …
- … Edward (6) Bartlett, R. S. (1) …
- … (1) Berliner Gesellschaft für Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urgeschichte …
- … Blackwell, T. E. (1) Blair, R. A. (7) …
- … Browne, Hugh (4) Browne, W. R. (1) …
Alfred Russel Wallace
Summary
Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography and evolutionary theory to spiritualism and politics. He was born in 1823 in Usk, a small town in south-east Wales, and attended a grammar school in Hertford. At the…
Matches: 12 hits
- … Wallace was a leading Victorian naturalist, with wide-ranging interests from biogeography …
- … theory to spiritualism and politics. He was born in 1823 in Usk, a small town in south-east Wales, …
- … especially on geographical distribution (the so-called ‘Wallace line’ dividing Indian and …
- … the problem of species change. In 1857, Darwin and Wallace exchanged several letters on …
- … species, along with Darwin’s encouraging words, that led Wallace to send a draft of his own theory …
- … coincidence”, Darwin wrote to Lyell on 18 June, “if Wallace had my M.S. sketch written out in 1842 …
- … publish his own theory, initially in a joint paper with Wallace to the Linnean Society, and then in …
- … an injustice & never demands justice” (14 April 1869). But Wallace continued, both privately and …
- … and prone to misinterpretation (see letter from A. R. Wallace, 2 July 1866). Wallace became one of …
- … open to scientific investigation (see letter from A. R. Wallace, 18 April [1869]). Wallace’s views …
- … 17 June 1876 and 7 January 1881, and the letter from A. R. Wallace, 29 January 1881). Wallace was a …
- … each other, though in one sense rivals” (letter to A. R. Wallace, 20 April [1870]). Wallace …
Fake Darwin: myths and misconceptions
Summary
Many myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, with full debunking below...
Matches: 1 hits
- … myths have persisted about Darwin's life and work. Here are a few of the more pervasive ones, …
Darwin in letters, 1869: Forward on all fronts
Summary
At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of Origin. He may have resented the interruption to his work on sexual selection and human evolution, but he spent forty-six days on the task. Much of the…
Matches: 17 hits
- … At the start of 1869, Darwin was hard at work making changes and additions for a fifth edition of …
- … had surfaced since the fourth edition appeared at the end of 1866 and had told his cousin William …
- … views on all points will have to be modified.— Well it is a beginning, & that is something’ ( …
- … Darwin’s most substantial addition to Origin was a response to a critique of natural selection …
- … myself atrociously’, Darwin wrote to Alfred Russel Wallace on 2 February , ‘I meant to say …
- … now see is possible or probable’ (see also letter to A. R. Wallace, 22 January [1869] , and …
- … Thomson’s work challenged by both Thomas Henry Huxley and Wallace. He confided to Huxley, ‘I find …
- … of information which I have sent prove of any service to M r . Darwin I can supply him with much …
- … . Natural selection and humans: differences with Wallace But even as Darwin’s research …
- … from you, & I am very sorry for it On 24 March, Wallace wrote to Darwin about a …
- … which is to me absolutely unassailable’. In the article, Wallace claimed that certain human …
- … civilization. Such features had only emerged, according to Wallace, through the agency of ‘a Power …
- … & proximate cause in regard to Man’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ). More …
- … and the bird of paradise (Wallace 1869a; letter to A. R. Wallace, 22 March [1869] ), and …
- … an injustice & never demands justice’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ). …
- … Sweetland Dallas’s edition of Fritz Müller’s Für Darwin (Dallas trans. 1869). The book, an …
- … creation, if he is not completely staggered after reading y r essay’. The work received a …
From Argus pheasant to Mivart: To A. R. Wallace, 17 June 1876
Summary
This letter has almost everything you might want from a Darwin letter, and merits a correspondingly, magnificently complete set of notes provided by the Correspondence Project. First, the letter is to that other doyen of natural selection, Alfred Russel…
Matches: 6 hits
- … This letter has almost everything you might want from a Darwin letter, and merits a correspondingly, …
- … teeth (an article Darwin saw 'some 20 to 30 years ago, in a French Journal ...'), a frog …
- … In the second part of the letter ('Now let me turn to a very different subject.') Darwin …
- … affair on this site dealing with Mivart . Mivart was a rather tragic figure, who, with his …
- … had been accused of 'encouraging profligacy'), so it became a family matter. Mivart had …
- … ever, as far as I know, treated me basely.' There is a bonus P.S. to the letter, where …
Darwin in letters, 1868: Studying sex
Summary
The quantity of Darwin’s correspondence increased dramatically in 1868 due largely to his ever-widening research on human evolution and sexual selection.Darwin’s theory of sexual selection as applied to human descent led him to investigate aspects of the…
Matches: 5 hits
- … or in satisfying female preference in the mating process. In a letter to Alfred Russel Wallace in …
- … on the subject to the zoologist Albert Günther: ‘a drunkard might as well say, he would drink a …
- … early as 1865, the two-volume work appeared in January 1868. A final delay caused by the indexing …
- … . It is a disgrace to the paper’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 24 February [1868] ). The review was …
- … entomologist Benjamin Dann Walsh on 25 March 1868 . Wallace maintained that males got whatever …
Darwin in letters, 1872: Job done?
Summary
'My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, 'is so nearly closed. . . What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’, and the tenor of his correspondence throughout the year is one of wistful reminiscence, coupled with a keen eye…
Matches: 15 hits
- … ‘My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, ‘is so nearly closed. . . What little more I can …
- … animals in November, the year marked the culmination of a programme of publication that can be …
- … earthworms in shaping the environment. The former led to a series of books and papers, and the …
- … years before. In his private life also, Darwin was in a nostalgic frame of mind, picking up …
- … June the previous year. He intended the edition to be a popular one that would bring his most …
- … 5s be better? . . . The public are accustomed to novels for 1s’, he wrote to Murray on 8 January …
- … set the final price at 7 s. 6 d. ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 12 February 1872 ). …
- … translator ( letter to J. J. Moulinié, 23 September 1872 ). He recapped the history of the French …
- … or the mouth parts of the baleen whale. Alfred Russel Wallace was one of several correspondents to …
- … Whale & duck most beautiful’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 3 March 1872 ). I …
- … `chiefly perhaps because I do it badly’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 3 August [1872] ). …
- … to J. D. Hooker, 12 July [1872] ). Darwin and Wallace: diverging views Indignation on …
- … & new views which are daily turning up’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 28 August [1872] ). …
- … you agreed to let them have it for love!!!’ ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 1 August 1872 ). It …
- … & have not taken care of ourselves’ ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 20 November 1872 ). A …
Dates of composition of Darwin's manuscript on species
Summary
Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s manuscript on species (DAR 8--15.1, inclusive; transcribed and published as Natural selection). This manuscript, begun in May 1856, was nearly completed by…
Matches: 5 hits
- … Many of the dates of letters in 1856 and 1857 were based on or confirmed by reference to Darwin’s …
- … the chapters ( Natural selection ) are also given. Chapter 1 is not extant nor was it recorded in …
- … title and references 1 [Not known] …
- … 4 26 January 1857 Variation under nature (DAR 9; …
- … [1] The title of this chapter has been taken from a table of contents to which Darwin added the …
Darwin in letters, 1867: A civilised dispute
Summary
Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, The variation of animals and plants under domestication (Variation). The importance of Darwin’s network of correspondents becomes vividly apparent in his work on expression in…
Matches: 18 hits
- … Charles Darwin’s major achievement in 1867 was the completion of his large work, The …
- … had been delivered to the publisher in the final week of 1866. It would take all of 1867 to correct …
- … oversized two-volume Variation and instead write a short (as he then expected) ‘Essay on Man’. …
- … selection in forming human races, and there was also to be a chapter on the meaning and cause of the …
- … selection in relation to sex ( Descent ), published in 1871, and the chapter on expression into …
- … for decades, it was only now that he began to work with a view to publishing his observations. …
- … becomes vividly apparent in his work on expression in 1867, as he continued to circulate a list of …
- … Darwin corrected them. Closer to home, two important works, a book by the duke of Argyll, and an …
- … defence of the theory in the capable hands of Alfred Russel Wallace. At the same time, Darwin was …
- … transmutation theory. Three important new correspondents in 1867 were Hermann Müller and Anton Dohrn …
- … Darwin also introduced the subject to Alfred Russel Wallace, who suggested in his response of 11 …
- … “supplemental remarks on expression”’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, [12–17] March [1867] ). Darwin’s …
- … debated the topic on a theoretical level was Alfred Russel Wallace. In a letter to Wallace written …
- … aviary to see whether this was the case ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 24 February [1867] ). He also …
- … butterflies resulted from sexual selection was implicit. Wallace’s response contained much more than …
- … level. In his response to Wallace ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 26 February [1867] ), Darwin defended …
- … than I c d have succeeded in doing’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 29 April [1867] ). Thus Darwin …
- … Wallace published a long article, ‘Creation by law’ (A. R. Wallace 1867c), which responded to Jenkin …
Darwin in letters, 1881: Old friends and new admirers
Summary
In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began writing about all the eminent men he had met. He embarked on this task, which formed an addition to his autobiography, because he had nothing else to do. He had…
Matches: 24 hits
- … In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, …
- … restrict himself to ‘more confined & easy subjects’. A month earlier, on 23 February , he had …
- … do’, he wrote despondently to Joseph Dalton Hooker on 15 June , concluding, ‘I must look forward …
- … of his book on earthworms, published in October, was a boost. His 5-year-old grandson Bernard, who …
- … had concealed this in his preface to his and Krause’s 1879 book Erasmus Darwin . Although Darwin …
- … his accusations in Unconscious memory in November 1880 and in an abusive letter about Darwin in …
- … Kosmos article should be translated and also appear in a British journal. Darwin could see that …
- … within the family, Henrietta explained to Stephen on 10 January , hoping that he did not think …
- … made a small omission ’. Stephen’s reply on 12 January was flattering, reassuring, and …
- … kindest which I have ever received,’ he told Stephen on 13 January , ‘& ... when in the dead …
- … January also brought the good news that Alfred Russel Wallace, co-discoverer of natural selection, …
- … . Buckley had suggested petitioning for a pension for Wallace, but it was Darwin’s efforts that …
- … 28, Appendix VI). When Huxley heard on 8 January that Wallace would receive £200 a year, he …
- … your undertaking—for yours it is totally & entirely’. Wallace also received the news on 8 …
- … Buckley’s delight was evident when she told Darwin on 13 January : ‘I have always felt that your …
- … the sale of books being ‘a game of chance’ ( letter to R. F. Cooke, 12 April 1881 ). On 18 May …
- … have everything to make me happy & contented,’ he told Wallace on 12 July , ‘but life has …
- … he would feel ‘less sulky in a day or two’ ( letter to R. F. Cooke, 29 July 1881 ). The degree of …
- … falls at this late period of the season’ ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 30 July 1881 ). Darwin gave in …
- … 19 July 1881 ). He continued his friendly disagreement with Wallace about plant dispersal across …
- … recommended that some of his work be published, and sent him Wallace’s book on geographical …
- … to bear the ‘wear & tear of controversy’ ( letter to G. R. Jesse, 23 April 1881 ). Later in …
- … everyone else’s judgment on the subject ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 12 July 1881 ). However, some …
- … do not be disappointed if the sale is small’ ( letter to R. F. Cooke, 5 October 1881 ). The …
Darwin in letters, 1858-1859: Origin
Summary
The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural existence filled with steady work on his ‘big book’ on species, he was jolted into action by the arrival of an unexpected letter from Alfred Russel Wallace…
Matches: 21 hits
- … The years 1858 and 1859 were, without doubt, the most momentous of Darwin’s life. From a quiet rural …
- … by the arrival of an unexpected letter from Alfred Russel Wallace. This letter led to the first …
- … exceeded my wildest hopes By the end of 1859, Darwin’s work was being discussed in …
- … and ‘bitter opponents’; compiling corrections for a second and then a third edition of his book; and …
- … ‘When I was in spirits’, he told Lyell at the end of 1859, ‘I sometimes fancied that my book w d …
- … hopes.—’ ( letter to Charles Lyell, 25 [November 1859] ). This transformation in Darwin’s personal …
- … from these years. The 'big book' The year 1858 opened with Darwin hard at …
- … completed his ninth chapter, on hybridism, on 29 December 1857, Darwin began in January 1858 to …
- … shows that at any one time Darwin was engaged in a number of projects, fitting together the final …
- … the problem of bees The chapter on instinct posed a number of problems for Darwin. ‘I find my …
- … Among these, the cell-making instincts of hive-bees posed a particular challenge to his overall …
- … constructed by hive-bees had long been celebrated as a classic example of divine design in nature. …
- … works. The question was, Do the species of large genera have a higher proportion of distinct …
- … varieties, or as I look at them incipient species ought, as a general rule, to be now forming. Where …
- … in larger genera, but they were not certain. This was a question new to the experts. Darwin was …
- … the occurrence of reversion in nature. Alfred Russel Wallace and the rush to publish …
- … by the arrival of the now-famous letter from Alfred Russel Wallace, enclosing an essay in which …
- … in the letter he subsequently wrote to Charles Lyell, as Wallace had requested, informing Lyell of …
- … to Lyell. ‘I never saw a more striking coincidence. if Wallace had my M.S. sketch written out in …
- … Lyell. He simply dated the letter ‘18’ and referred to Wallace’s letter as having been received …
- … H. Lewis McKinney, both of whom believe that Darwin received Wallace’s communication before 18 June. …
Religion
Summary
Design|Personal Belief|Beauty|The Church Perhaps the most notorious realm of controversy over evolution in Darwin's day was religion. The same can be said of the evolution controversy today; however the nature of the disputes and the manner in…
Matches: 5 hits
- … although he tended to avoid the subject as much as possible. A number of correspondents tried to …
- … nor is it clear that by challenging design, he provided a position completely incompatible with all …
- … point of departure reviews of Origin . The second is a single letter from naturalist A. R. …
- … for the attention now given to the subject. He poses Gray a question on design in nature, as he is …
- … of the fittest” instead of “Natural Selection”. Wallace urges Darwin to stress frequency of …
Darwin in letters, 1876: In the midst of life
Summary
1876 was the year in which the Darwins became grandparents for the first time. And tragically lost their daughter-in-law, Amy, who died just days after her son's birth. All the letters from 1876 are now published in volume 24 of The Correspondence…
Matches: 11 hits
- … and cosseting regarding the ailments that were so much a feature of Darwin family life. But the calm …
- … Cross and self fertilisation , that the family suffered a devastating loss. The Darwins must have …
- … expected in September. Their joy at the safe delivery of a healthy boy was soon replaced by anguish …
- … his anxiety about Francis. By the end of the year there was a different order at Down House with …
- … Year's resolutions Darwin began the year by making a resolution. He would in future …
- … Origin for the very last time, and made minor changes to a reprint of the second edition of …
- … voyage, Volcanic islands and South America , in a new single-volume edition titled …
- … was nevertheless ‘firmly resolved not even to look at a single proof ’. Perhaps Carus’s meticulous …
- … Autobiography’ (‘Journal’ (Appendix II)). During a two-week holiday after finishing Cross and self …
- … without the least foundation’, Darwin told Alfred Russel Wallace on 17 June . It was the still …
- … was the criterion for a physiological species. Alfred Russel Wallace was not convinced. ‘I am afraid …
Origin
Summary
Darwin’s most famous work, Origin, had an inauspicious beginning. It grew out of his wish to establish priority for the species theory he had spent over twenty years researching. Darwin never intended to write Origin, and had resisted suggestions in 1856…
Matches: 11 hits
- … to write Origin, and had resisted suggestions in 1856 that he publish a short version of his …
- … supporting evidence, and to this end was steadily writing a work he called his ‘big book’ . His …
- … children and he intended to remove the family from Down for a few weeks to the Isle of Wight. …
- … reassurance by suggesting that Darwin might be able to have 100 to 150 pages in a ‘ separate …
- … objection as strongly as I could. I did not feel myself a dissenter from or opponent to your views, …
- … spirits remained low. ‘ We are too old & feeble a party for anywhere but home ’, he wrote from …
- … in persuading Darwin not to publish an abstract in 1856 , Darwin explained to whole affair to him …
- … When work on the big book was interrupted by the arrival of Wallace’s essay, he had only just …
- … was writing his essay on the flora of Australia in December 1858, he asked to borrow Darwin’s ‘ …
- … very sure what he would say’, Darwin admitted, adding that Wallace ‘ must be an amiable man. ’ …
- … views were apparent when he reported to Wallace that ‘ D r . Hooker has become almost as …
Cross and self fertilisation
Summary
The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom, published on 10 November 1876, was the result of a decade-long project to provide evidence for Darwin’s belief that ‘‘Nature thus tells us, in the most emphatic manner, that she abhors…
Matches: 17 hits
- … self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom , published on 10 November 1876, was the result of a …
- … by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing (1862), and in several papers on plants with …
- … … is highly remarkable’ In September 1866, Darwin announced to the American botanist …
- … of the young plants is highly remarkable’ ( To Asa Gray, 10 September [1866] ). By early December, …
- … when grown together for several years ( To Édouard Bornet, 1 December 1866 ). Darwin began a …
- … ). Fritz Müller, writing from Brazil in December 1866, noted that plants of this poppy growing in …
- … unnoticed, had it existed in all individuals of such a common garden plant. Perhaps in the case of …
- … in divergent climatic conditions’ ( From Fritz Müller, 1 December 1866 ). Darwin’s interest was …
- … of these seeds to Müller, hoping that he would ‘raise a plant, cover it with a net, & observe …
- … generations. In June 1869, Müller remarked, on receiving a new batch of seeds from Darwin, ‘that it …
- … plants’ ( To Fritz Müller, 12 May 1870 ). From a fairly early stage in his experimental …
- … & about which I dont know whether you w d care, is that a great excess of, or very little …
- … weight, or period of germination in the seeds of Ipomœa. I remember saying the contrary to you & …
- … Julius Carus, who wrote in early May, Darwin stated, ‘M r Murray announced my next book without …
- … the set of all my works, I would suggest 1,500’ ( To R. F. Cooke, 16 September 1876 ). In the …
- … 16 December 1876 ). One critical review came from Alfred Wallace, who complained, ‘I am afraid this …
- … of hybrids, has not yet been produced’ ( From A. R. Wallace, 13 December 1876 ). No reply to this …
Dramatisation script
Summary
Re: Design – Adaptation of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin, Asa Gray and others… by Craig Baxter – as performed 25 March 2007
Matches: 20 hits
- … Re: Design – performance version – 25 March 2007 – 1 Re: Design – Adaptation of the …
- … predominantly read the words of the following: Actor 1 – Asa Gray Actor 2 – Charles …
- … the environment in which the play unfolds and acting as a go-between between Gray and Darwin, and …
- … indicate an edit in the original text not, necessarily, a pause in the delivery of the line. A …
- … JANE GRAY: [Jane Loring Gray’s journal. Harvard. November 1887] 1 Dr Gray went in to Boston …
- … quick breathing and some listlessness, so that he was nursed a little on Friday… That evening …
- … him on the success of the treatment. There seemed a weakness of the right hand, which, however, …
- … that they may be held theistically… Indeed, I expect that a coming generation will give me the …
- … of his paper on Darwin. THE SAND WALK: 1844 In which Darwin, at home in …
- … of Natural Selection… was drawn up in the year 1839, and copied and communicated to Messrs …
- … his Christian belief and Darwin discovers that Alfred Wallace has developed his own strikingly …
- … of the package (an essay from New Guinea from Alfred Russel Wallace) throws Darwin into a fluster. …
- … of last year… / Why I ask this is as follows: Mr Wallace who is now exploring New Guinea, has …
- … will be smashed. … 49 [Yet] there is nothing in Wallace’s sketch which is not written out …
- … that I can do so honourably, 50 knowing that Wallace is in the field…. / It seems hard on …
- … Dr Gray… I shall be glad of your opinion of Darwin and Wallace’s paper. GRAY: 58 …
- … on all hands. DARWIN: 65 My dear [Mr Wallace], I have told [my publisher] Murray …
- … paragraph, in which I quote and differ from you[r] 178 doctrine that each variation has been …
- … TO JD HOOKER 12 OCTOBER 1849 6 C DARWIN TO R FITZROY, 1 OCTOBER 1846 7 …
- … TO A GRAY, 27 NOVEMBER 1859 65 C DARWIN TO A WALLACE, 13 NOVEMBER 1859 66 …
Darwin in letters, 1880: Sensitivity and worms
Summary
‘My heart & soul care for worms & nothing else in this world,’ Darwin wrote to his old Shrewsbury friend Henry Johnson on 14 November 1880. Darwin became fully devoted to earthworms in the spring of the year, just after finishing the manuscript of…
Matches: 20 hits
- … wrote to his old Shrewsbury friend Henry Johnson on 14 November 1880 . Darwin became fully …
- … of infants, family pets, and zoo animals begun in the late 1830s. Other correspondents raised …
- … and observations. Financial support for science was a recurring issue, as Darwin tried to secure a …
- … book, Erasmus Darwin , had been published in November 1879. It was received well by his relations …
- … Erasmus’s life and other bits of family history. On 1 January , a distant cousin, Charles …
- … about the eagerness of the two learned divines to see a pig’s body opened is very amusing’, Darwin …
- … of much value to me’ ( letter to C. H. Tindal, 5 January 1880 ). Darwin had employed a genealogist …
- … away in archives and registry offices, and produced a twenty-page history of the Darwin family …
- … & even the world’ ( letter from J. L. Chester, 3 March 1880 ). Darwin’s sons George and …
- … Darwin’s Life . ‘In an endeavour to explain away y r . treatment of [William Alvey Darwin],’ …
- … letter from W. E. Darwin to Charles and Emma Darwin, 22 July 1880 ). Sales of Erasmus …
- … he had written for the German journal Kosmos in February 1879, an issue produced in honour of …
- … by anticipation the position I have taken as regards D r Erasmus Darwin in my book Evolution old …
- … to the end’, added her husband Richard ( letter from R. B. Litchfield, 1 February 1880 ). Even the …
- … shake their heads in the same dismal manner as you & M r . Murray did, when I told them my …
- … for the co-discoverer of natural selection, Alfred Russel Wallace. In the previous year, he had …
- … Civil List pension, but Hooker was against it, fearing that Wallace’s spiritualism and an ill-judged …
- … from J. D. Hooker, 18 December 1879 ). For some years, Wallace’s main source of income had been …
- … without success. On 20 March , Darwin heard more about Wallace’s plight from the geologist Alfred …
- … with John Lubbock and Huxley and was encouraged about Wallace’s prospects for a government pension. …
Darwin in letters,1870: Human evolution
Summary
The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The whole of the year at work on the Descent of Man & Selection in relation to Sex’. Descent was the culmination of over three decades of observations and reflections on…
Matches: 19 hits
- … The year 1870 is aptly summarised by the brief entry Darwin made in his journal: ‘The …
- … Darwin reckoned that he had started writing on 4 February 1868, only five days after the publication …
- … was far more extensive than Darwin had anticipated. As a result, Descent , like Variation , …
- … the material on emotion; it would eventually appear as a separate book in 1872 ( Expression of the …
- … of natural selection to humans from Alfred Russel Wallace and St George Jackson Mivart, and heated …
- … Lyell, ‘thank all the powers above & below, I shall be a man again & not a horrid grinding …
- … to me for some weeks’ ( letter to Albert Günther, 13 January [1870] ). Darwin was still working …
- … I shall be’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ). She had previously read proof-sheets …
- … eighteen years of age. Darwin clearly expected her to make a considerable contribution, instructing …
- … He worried that parts of the book were ‘too like a Sermon: who wd ever have thought that I shd. turn …
- … of man!’ ( letter from H. E. Darwin, [after 8 February 1870] ). Darwin was also encouraged …
- … looking exclusively into his own mind’, and himself, ‘a degraded wretch looking from the outside …
- … side of human descent. On 7 March 1870, Darwin made a note on the shape of human ears: ‘W. has seen …
- … made drawings of ears of monkeys & shortly afterwards he saw a man with tip & instantly …
- … debate over human evolution grew more heated. Alfred Russel Wallace had expressed reservations about …
- … year (see Correspondence vol. 17, letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 ). His views were …
- … (in retrograde direction) naturalist’ (letter to A. R.Wallace, 26 January [1870]). …
- … they had in the past to sustain goodwill and mutual respect. Wallace’s new book, titled …
- … When he received the book, Darwin was full of praise for Wallace’s ‘modesty and candour’. ‘I hope it …
Species and varieties
Summary
On the origin of species by means of natural selection …so begins the title of Darwin’s most famous book, and the reader would rightly assume that such a thing as ‘species’ must therefore exist and be subject to description. But the title continues, …or…
Matches: 19 hits
- … famous book, and the reader would rightly assume that such a thing as ‘species’ must therefore exist …
- … especially to the modern reader, for whom race carries a different and highly charged meaning. In …
- … used the term here, he simply meant ‘variety’, as in ‘a fast-growing race of wheat’. The question, …
- … notebooks, under the lists of books he wanted to read (DAR 119: 2v), Darwin scribbled a reminder to …
- … Aristotle on the parts of animals (Ogle trans. 1882). Darwin would have found that Aristotle …
- … groups owing to their close proximity’ ( ibid. , p. 104). Contrast this with Aristotelian …
- … to the characterisation of things, and you have, in a nutshell, the two sides of a debate about the …
- … until Darwin published his own taxonomic works between 1851 and 1854. Linnaeus ordered the world …
- … other criteria. He was challenged by others who searched for a more ‘natural’ taxonomy that would …
- … organism. Darwin himself did not set out to be a taxonomist, but in trying to understand some …
- … observation just how much variability often existed within a species. The features he focused on …
- … to describe it scientifically, & yet all the genera have 1/2 a dozen synonyms’ ( letter to H. E …
- … undefinable’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 24 December [1856] ). The idea that sterility was a test …
- … the reach of all possible assault’ (T. H. Huxley 1863a, p. 147). In Origin p. 272, Darwin …
- … to look at sterility from a different perspective. In May 1860, he noticed differences in the …
- … different forms of flowers on plants of the same species (1877) What Darwin discovered was that …
- … even in members of the same species. Throughout the 1860s, Darwin vacillated about whether …
- … at this time was his discussion of the issue with Alfred Wallace in the spring of 1868. Wallace had …
- … might be produced by natural selection ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 1 March 1868 ). Darwin turned …
Darwin in letters, 1856-1857: the 'Big Book'
Summary
In May 1856, Darwin began writing up his 'species sketch’ in earnest. During this period, his working life was completely dominated by the preparation of his 'Big Book', which was to be called Natural selection. Using letters are the main…
Matches: 11 hits
- … this manuscript. Although advised by Lyell to publish only a brief outline—probably more for the …
- … was reluctant to squeeze his expansive material into such a small compass and soon abandoned Lyell’s …
- … quantities of information, pursuing his own experiments in a variety of different areas, analysing …
- … still felt cautious in expressing his views before a large scientific audience and anxious to ensure …
- … valued the views of Thomas Henry Huxley, at that time a somewhat precariously placed lecturer and …
- … selection might work in nature ( letter from Charles Lyell, 1–2 May 1856, n. 10 ). He was …
- … and this, since it was composed so many years later, is not a safe guide to his pre- Origin …
- … plants to be more hairy than their lowland relatives. But a last-minute check with Hooker revealed …
- … but all they actually showed was the self-evident fact that a large genus was more likely to contain …
- … the surviving correspondence that Darwin initially wrote to Wallace in order to obtain specimens of …
- … and the preparation of his manuscript ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 1 May 1857 ) seem innocuous and …
