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Be envious of ripe oranges: To W. D. Fox, May 1832
Summary
Henry Cowles talks about a heartfelt letter Darwin sent from Brazil on the Beagle voyage to his cousin.
Matches: 1 hits
- … Henry Cowles talks about a heartfelt letter Darwin sent from Brazil on …
Darwin in letters, 1874: A turbulent year
Summary
The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the early months working on second editions of Coral reefs and Descent of man; the rest of the year was mostly devoted to further research on insectivorous plants. A…
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Darwin's 1874 letters go online
Summary
The full transcripts and footnotes of over 600 letters to and from Charles Darwin in 1874 are published online for the first time. You can read about Darwin's life in 1874 through his letters and see a full list of the letters. The 1874 letters…
Matches: 5 hits
- … more quietly, as not signifying so much. ( Letter to W. D. Fox, 11 May [1874] ) At …
- … the subject & that must be enough for me ( Letter to W. D. Fox, 11 May [1874] ) …
- … five times more time than the positive ( Letter to J. D. Hooker, 30 August [1874] ) …
- … day more in my life than this day’s work ( Letter to D. F. Nevill, 18 September [1874] ) …
- … the work which you have to do— ( Letter to J. D. Hooker, 30 November [1874] ) Darwin …
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: 22 hits
- … F. E. (17) Abernethy, J. W. (1) …
- … Acland, C. L. (1) Acland, H. W. (1) …
- … Ansell, G. F. (1) Ansted, D. T. (8) …
- … (2) Arruda Furtado, Francisco d’ (10) …
- … Austen, J. T. (5) Austin, A. D. (2) …
- … Aveling, E. B. (7) Axon, W. E. A. (2) …
- … Bacon, Booth (1) Badger, E. W. (3) …
- … Baillière, G.-G. (1) Baily, W. H. (1) …
- … Balch, C. L. (3) Baldwin, J. D. (2) …
- … H. H. (1) Baranoff, W. (2) Barber, M …
- … Joachim (1) Barrett, W. F. (1) …
- … Frederick (2) Bates, H. W. (91) …
- … Brooks, W. C. (1) Brown, D. J. (1) …
- … Dudley (1) Campbell, G. D. (3) Canby …
- … & Galpin (1) Caton, J. D. (9) …
- … Mary (1) Conway, M. D. (9) Conybeare …
- … B. A. E. (1) Cooper, J. D. (2) …
- … James (40) Crick, W. D. (11) Crier, …
- … Crotch, G. R. (4) Crotch, W. D. (5) …
- … Curzon, A. N. H. (1) D. Appleton & Co (30) …
- … Damseaux, A. (1) Dana, J. D. (32) …
- … Fowler, J. K. (1) Fox, C. W. (3) Fox …
What is an experiment?
Summary
Darwin is not usually regarded as an experimenter, but rather as an astute observer and a grand theorist. His early career seems to confirm this. He began with detailed note-taking, collecting and cataloguing on the Beagle, and edited a descriptive zoology…
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Have you read the one about....
Summary
... the atheistical cats, or the old fogies in Cambridge? We've suggested a few - some funny, some serious - but all letters you can read here.
Matches: 1 hits
- … ... the atheistical cats, or the old fogies in Cambridge? We've suggested a few - some funny, some …
Correlation of growth: deaf blue-eyed cats, pigs, and poison
Summary
As he was first developing his ideas, among the potential problems Darwin recognised with natural selection was how to account for developmental change that conferred no apparent advantage. He proposed a ‘mysterious law’ of ‘correlation of growth’ where…
Matches: 2 hits
- … brought to Darwin’s notice by his cousin, William Darwin Fox. As Darwin was beginning to write up a …
- … to the second edition of Variation , he went back to Fox to ask specifically about the sex of …
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…
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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: 15 hits
- … at the end of 1859, ‘I sometimes fancied that my book w d be successful; but I never even built …
- … very perplexing’, he told his cousin William Darwin Fox, ‘from not knowing what to choose from the …
- … approval of his argument is evident. ‘Though I sh d . not have much cared about throwing away …
- … myself that all was much alike, & if you condemned that you w d . condemn all—my life’s work— …
- … ‘Your words have come true with a vengeance that I sh d . be forestalled’, he lamented to Lyell. …
- … Correspondence vol. 7, Appendix V.) Upon the advice of Fox, the family fled the epidemic and …
- … material would require a ‘small volume’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 October [1858] ). Begun while …
- … appropriated the other’s ideas (see letters to J. D. Hooker, 2 March [1859] , 11 March [1859] …
- … ‘We have been here above 6 week,’ he wrote to Fox, ‘& I feel worse than when I came’ ( letter …
- … the fine points of Darwin’s theory ( see letter to J. D. Hooker, 6 May 1859 ). Among the older …
- … at me & leaves me to their mercies’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [22 November 1859] ). Late in …
- … required a fresh act of intervention to supply the lacunas w h . he himself had made’ ( letter …
- … got much more larky since we run two horses’ ( letter to W. E. Darwin, 6 October [1858] ). …
- … of it what they will. ‘You do me injustice’, he wrote to Fox, ‘when you think that I work for fame: …
- … sort of instinct to try to make out truth’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 24 [March 1859] ). Yet he …
Darwin in letters,1866: Survival of the fittest
Summary
The year 1866 began well for Charles Darwin, as his health, after several years of illness, was now considerably improved. In February, Darwin received a request from his publisher, John Murray, for a new edition of Origin. Darwin got the fourth…
Darwin’s earthquakes
Summary
Darwin experienced his first earthquake in 1834, but it was a few months later that he was really confronted with their power. Travelling north along the coast of Chile, Darwin and Robert FitzRoy, captain of HMS Beagle, were confronted with a series of…
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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: 7 hits
- … Darwin’s best efforts, set the final price at 7 s. 6 d. ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 12 …
- … Darwin’s wholeheartedly partisan reply ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 May 1872 ). On 13 June, a …
- … a week later ( enclosure to letter from John Lubbock to W. E. Gladstone, 20 June 1872 ). Darwin …
- … to make one turn into an old honest Tory’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 July [1872] ). …
- … use of the microscope led his head to `fail’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 29 October [1872] ) he had …
- … fellow beetle-enthusiast from student days, William Darwin Fox. The two had not met for nearly ten …
- … by hearing about Panagæus!’ Darwin wrote ( letter to W. D. Fox, 16 July [1872] ). I …
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: 1 hits
- … on domestic animals in India and elsewhere. William Darwin Fox supplied information about cats, dogs …
'An Appeal' against animal cruelty
Summary
The four-page pamphlet transcribed below and entitled 'An Appeal', was composed jointly by Emma and Charles Darwin (see letter from Emma Darwin to W. D. Fox, [29 September 1863]). The pamphlet, which protested against the cruelty of steel vermin…
Matches: 1 hits
- … 8 Christ’s College Library, Cambridge (Fox 142) 1 The Act to prevent the cruel …
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…
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Science, Work and Manliness
Summary
Discussion Questions|Letters In 1859, popular didactic writer William Landels published the first edition of what proved to be one of his best-selling works, How Men Are Made. "It is by work, work, work" he told his middle class audience, …
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Darwin in letters, 1862: A multiplicity of experiments
Summary
1862 was a particularly productive year for Darwin. This was not only the case in his published output (two botanical papers and a book on the pollination mechanisms of orchids), but more particularly in the extent and breadth of the botanical experiments…
Matches: 27 hits
- … do think you have a good right to be so’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [15 and] 20 November [1862] ) …
- … telling Hooker: ‘he is no common man’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] ). Two …
- … the end of the year, he wrote to Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] ): ‘my …
- … increasingly frustrated, telling Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 March [1862] ): ‘I am nearly …
- … his ‘ enormous labour over them’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 [October 1862] ; see ML 2: 292–3) …
- … at Lythrum & have seen the three forms … I sh d . like to make out this wonderfully …
- … warranted a paper for the Linnean Society ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 6 October [1862] ). However, …
- … his son, William, his language was more blunt ( letter to W. E. Darwin, 14 February [1862] ): …
- … anything I published’, he told Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 15 [May 1862] ). But he did not …
- … the book, it was, after all, ‘a success’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 30 [June 1862] ). a …
- … selection. He made the point to Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 March [1862] ): ‘I have found …
- … ‘good dashes of original reflexions’ ( letter to H. W. Bates, 13 January [1862] ). He warmly …
- … a few of their letters; Darwin remarked ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 26 [March 1862] ): ‘It is really …
- … & admirable papers I ever read in my life’ ( letter to H. W. Bates, 20 November [1862] ). He …
- … was never so plainly brought forward’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 24 [November 1862] ), and the two …
- … like” is at the bottom of all’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, 26 November 1862 ) drew from Darwin a …
- … physical conditions, and natural selection ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [after 26] November [1862] ). …
- … studies to Charles Naudin, a botanist at the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, whose experiments on …
- … of Naudin’s methods, and his claims ( see letter to J. D. Hooker, 30 [June 1862] ), but still …
- … comments, Darwin expressed surprise that Gray ‘sh d . have strength of mind to care for science, …
- … and Emma ‘perplexed to death what to do’ ( letter to W. E. Darwin, [2–3 August 1862] ). They …
- … were exciting: he told both his cousin, William Darwin Fox, and Hooker of his growing conviction …
- … analogous to the nervous matter of animals’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 20 [September 1862] ; letter …
- … in September, with everybody’s health improving, he told Fox: ‘I have never passed so miserable a …
- … work would make his life ‘much happier’ ( letter to W. E. Darwin, 14 February [1862] ). Darwin …
- … with him, enthusiastically set to work ( see letter to W. E. Darwin, [2–3 August 1862] , and …
- … insects with Darwin’s hypothesis ( see letter from H. W. Bates, 30 April 1862 ), Darwin was …
Darwin in letters, 1863: Quarrels at home, honours abroad
Summary
At the start of 1863, Charles Darwin was actively working on the manuscript of The variation of animals and plants under domestication, anticipating with excitement the construction of a hothouse to accommodate his increasingly varied botanical experiments…
Matches: 28 hits
- … Quadrumanum animal’, as he put it in a letter to J. D. Hooker of 24[–5] February [1863] . When …
- … his one-time mentor had not said a word ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 24[–5] February [1863] ). …
- … in answering Owen unaided ’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [23 February 1863] ). Hugh Falconer was …
- … Lyell’s book being written by others’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [23 February 1863] ). Falconer …
- … to see men fighting so for a little fame’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 17 March [1863] ). …
- … to capture his and others’ attention ( see letter to J. D. Dana, 20 February [1863] , and letter …
- … a letter to the Athenæum in response ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 March [1863] ). He later …
- … composed such a good letter (!)’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 17 March [1863] ). At the same time …
- … Carpenter’s book on Foraminifera ( see letter to J. D. Hooker, [29 March 1863] , and Appendix VII) …
- … as well think of origin of matter.—’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [29 March 1863] ). Owen’s …
- … first edition of Antiquity of man ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [23 February 1863] , and …
- … science before the public in this way ( see letter from J. D. Hooker, [7 May 1863] , and Appendix …
- … been gnashing my teeth at my own folly’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [9 May 1863] ). After his …
- … this subject seems to get rarer & rarer’ ( letter to H. W. Bates, 18 April [1863] ), …
- … for the Natural History Review ( see letter to H. W. Bates, 12 January [1863] ). Darwin added …
- … in all England … who dare speak out’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, [9 May 1863] ). The others listed …
- … champion of true philosophic enquiry’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 23 April [1863] , and letter …
- … Naudin thought little of his theory ( see letter to J. D. Hooker, 30 January [1863] ), but he was …
- … had placed Sedgwick in opposition to him ( see letter to J. D. Hooker, [22–3 November 1863] ). …
- … than about honours like the Copley Medal ( see letter to J. D. Hooker, 5 [December 1863] ). …
- … , letter to Asa Gray, 20 April [1863] , letter to J. D. Hooker, [9 May 1863] , and …
- … that Darwin was a ‘hard headed man’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [24 May 1863] ). Darwin finally …
- … give a rational explanation of phyllotaxy ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 29 May [1863] , and letter …
- … letter from John Scott, 22 May 1863 , and letter to J. D. Hooker, 23 May [1863] ). Hooker …
- … I have come across no one like him’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 29 May [1863] ). The new …
- … on the bookcase and around the head of the sofa ( letter to W. E. Darwin, [25 July 1863], and …
- … in 1863, they wrote to Darwin’s cousin, William Darwin Fox, who had visited the grave seven years …
- … was hidden by overgrown trees and shrubs ( see letter from W. D. Fox, 7 September [1863] ). Emma …
Darwin in letters, 1851-1855: Death of a daughter
Summary
The letters from these years reveal the main preoccupations of Darwin’s life with a new intensity. The period opens with a family tragedy in the death of Darwin’s oldest and favourite daughter, Anne, and it shows how, weary and mourning his dead child,…
Before Origin: the ‘big book’
Summary
Darwin began ‘sorting notes for Species Theory’ on 9 September 1854, the very day he concluded his eight-year study of barnacles (Darwin's Journal). He had long considered the question of species. In 1842, he outlined a theory of transmutation in a…
Matches: 10 hits
- … of species ’, he told his cousin William Darwin Fox. Experimental work Darwin …
- … to set up to provide crucial evidence for his arguments. Fox, Darwin assumed, would have bred …
- … me at a guess how long an immersion in sea-water you sh d . imagine w d . kill the more …
- … to hear of them, he might easily work them in, & then I sh d . have to quote from a work …
- … hate the idea of writing for priority, yet I certainly sh d . be vexed if any one were to publish …
- … to publish without full details. ’ Writing to his cousin Fox in June 1856, Darwin openly confessed …
- … of this acceleration was revealed, when he told his cousin Fox: ‘ I am working very hard at my Book …
- … interested in the way facts fall into groups ’, he told Fox in February 1857. Trials of …
- … ‘Your words have come true with a vengeance that I sh d . be forestalled’, he told Lyell, ‘ I …
- … far rather burn my whole book than that he or any man sh d . think that I had behaved in a paltry …
