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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: 22 hits
- … 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 …
- … Lyell, ‘thank all the powers above & below, I shall be a man again & not a horrid grinding …
- … anything which has happened to me for some weeks’ ( letter to Albert Günther, 13 January [1870] ) …
- … corrections of style, the more grateful I shall be’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, [8 February 1870] ) …
- … 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 …
- … abt any thing so unimportant as the mind of man!’ ( letter from H. E. Darwin, [after 8 February …
- … looking exclusively into his own mind’, and himself, ‘a degraded wretch looking from the outside …
- … how metaphysics & physics form one great philosophy?’ ( letter from F. P. Cobbe, 28 March [1870 …
- … 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 …
- … statue of Puck, the mischievous fairy in Shakespeare’s A midsummer night’s dream. Darwin …
- … in thanks for the drawing ( Correspondence vol. 16, letter to J. D. Hooker, 26 November [1868] …
- … patients, but it did not confirm Duchenne’s findings ( letter from James Crichton-Browne, 15 March …
- … muscle’, he complained, ‘is the bane of existence!’ ( letter to William Ogle, 9 November 1870 ). …
- … make it scream without hurting it much?’ ( letter to A. D. Bartlett, 5 January [1870] ). Darwin …
- … in Bastian’s solutions of the same kind’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 July [1870] ). Bastian’s …
- … on to the last of my uncomfortable days’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 18 February [1870] ). But he had …
- … to be thus killed by a man of 86’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 25 May [1870] ). On learning of this, …
- … I know no more than the man in the moon’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 25 May [1870] ). Horace …
- … believe in bad motives in others’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 15 November [1870] ). Fox reassured him, …
Rewriting Origin - the later editions
Summary
For such an iconic work, the text of Origin was far from static. It was a living thing that Darwin continued to shape for the rest of his life, refining his ‘one long argument’ through a further five English editions. Many of his changes were made in…
Matches: 17 hits
- … – and, taken together, letters and publications form a series of overlapping conversations with …
- … expect it to be so popular, but because he saw it as a temporary stop-gap. He still intended to …
- … edition, both of which came out just weeks later, solely as a chance to make corrections or …
- … his business elsewhere if they weren’t willing to produce a new edition: ‘I feel sure that the …
- … final one published in Darwin’s lifetime) was prefaced by a long list of alterations. Tracing the …
- … these changes. While some were improvements in style, and a few corrected errors, the bulk …
- … his points, or revised and expanded his thinking. Stung by a reported comment from Richard Owen that …
- … on naval timber, and in later re-writings itself became a place for skirmishes over priority with …
- … no changes in the typeface, size or binding. The fifth had a different cover, and smaller margins to …
- … wants another instantly… Darwin heard that a new edition was already needed on 24 …
- … he modestly described the second edition as ‘ merely a reprint of the first with a few verbal …
- … buried Darwin under a blizzard of letters (see especially letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October …
- … getting permission to quote prominently from Kingsley’s letter in the revised summary: A …
- … sufficiently acknowledged earlier work. According to a letter to Asa Gray he had yet to start …
- … an animal’s colour and its immunity to poison (see letter from Jeffries Wyman, [ c . 15] …
- … hitherto slurred it over. In his Christmas Day letter to his old friend Joseph Hooker, …
- … of population increase in elephants in response to a letter published in the Athenaeum by a …
Darwin in letters, 1871: An emptying nest
Summary
The year 1871 was an extremely busy and productive one for Darwin, with the publication in February of his long-awaited book on human evolution, Descent of man. The other main preoccupation of the year was the preparation of his manuscript on expression.…
Matches: 25 hits
- … the whole of the confounded book out of my head’. But a large proportion of Darwin’s time for the …
- … , ‘for as my son Frank says, “you treat man in such a bare-faced manner.”‘ The most lively debate …
- … of illustrating his book. The year also brought a significant milestone for the family, as …
- … as feelings of hope for her future happiness combined with a sense of loss. Descent of man …
- … [of] the facts, during several past years, has been a great amusement’. Darwin had been working …
- … in the late 1830s. In recent years, Darwin had collected a wealth of material on sexual selection …
- … published on 24 February, and all 2500 copies were sold in a week. ‘Murray says he is “torn to …
- … three more printings, 2000 in March, 2000 in April, and a further 1000 in December. The level of …
- … and the speed at which they appeared. Arrangements for a US edition had been in place since December …
- … do to talk about it, which no doubt promotes the sale’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 26 March 1871 ) …
- … Darwin wrote to Murray on 20 March 1871 , ‘It is quite a grand trade to be a scientific man.’ …
- … to her liking, ‘to keep in memory of the book’ ( letter to H. E. Darwin, 20 March 1871 ). …
- … and had forsaken his lunch and dinner in order to read it ( letter from James Crichton-Browne, 19 …
- … they believe to be the truth, whether pleasant or not’ (letter from W. W. Reade, 21 February 1871). …
- … and Oldham … They club together to buy them’ ( letter from W. B. Dawkins, 23 February 1871 ). …
- … one’s n th . ancestor lived between tide-marks!’ ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 20 February 1871 ). …
- … habits, furnished with a tail and pointed ears” (letter from Asa Gray, 14 April 1871) …
- … ‘will-power’ and the heavy use of their arms and legs ( letter from C. L. Bernays, 25 February 1871 …
- … in order to make it darker than the hair on his head ( letter from W. B. Tegetmeier, [before 25 …
- … together with an image of an orang-utan foetus ( letter from Hinrich Nitsche, 18 April 1871 ). …
- … of himself, adding that it made a ‘very poor return’ ( letter to Hinrich Nitsche, 25 April [1871] …
- … each night, returning to its allotted space each morning ( letter from Arthur Nicols, 7 March 1871 …
- … feel no shade of animosity,—& that is a thing which I sh d feel very proud of, if anyone c d …
- … religious bigotry is at the root of it’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 16 September [1871] ). …
- … resemblance to a ‘venerable old Ape’ ( letter from D. Thomas, [after 11 March 1871] ). …