This volume covers the first years of Darwin's study of the structure and systematics of barnacles: work that involved a worldwide search for specimens, detailed microscopic investigations, a consideration of the theoretical assumptions underlying classification schemes, and the solution of practical problems of zoological nomenclature. Darwin's convictions about the nature and origin of species influenced his observations and conclusions and provided insights that led to some remarkable discoveries. Throughout this period Darwin also maintained his involvement in major geological debates, as...

The correspondence in this volume reveals the two sides of Darwin's life in a new intensity. It opens with a tragedy, the death of Darwin's oldest and best loved daughter, Anne, and goes on to show how Darwin sought relief from his loss through his work, with a single-minded but increasingly weary commitment to the completion of his cirripede monographs. In September 1854, as soon as the final proofs of the last barnacle volume had been returned to the printer, Darwin threw himself into a resumption of his species work. He followed up old ideas by initiating new experiments and establishing a...

Natural Selection is the manuscript on which Darwin based his landmark volume, On the Origin of Species.

This edition, first published in 1975 and now available in paperback, presented, for the first time, the complete work; a formal and thorough presentation of Darwin's views on evolution. Compared with the Origin, the original long work on Natural Selection has more abundant examples and illustrations of Darwin's argument, plus an extensive citation of sources and references, which were totally absent from The Origin of Species. Professor Stauffer has edited Darwin's manuscript with...

The seventh volume of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin covers two of the most momentous years in Darwin's life and in the history of science. Begun in 1856, Darwin's big book on species, later published as Natural Selection (Cambridge University Press, 1974) was a little more than half finished when Darwin unexpectedly received a letter and a manuscript from Alfred Russel Wallace indicating that he too had independently formulated a theory of natural selection. In a letter to his friend, Charles Lyell, Darwin wrote, "So all my originality, whatever it may amount to, will be smashed." On...

Volume 8 opens with Darwin eagerly scrutinizing each new review, as one by one all the major media of the day carried notices of the book. To those who express their views privately in letters, Darwin responds patiently and thoughtfully, answering their objections and attempting to guide their fuller understanding of the operation of natural selection. His more personal thoughts emerge in letters to his friends Joseph Dalton Hooker, Charles Lyell, and Thomas Henry Huxley. This volume presents a wealth of detailed information, giving the full range of response to the Origin and revealing how...

The correspondence in this volume continues to reveal the variety of responses to Darwin's species theory in the second year following the publication of The Origin of Species. Darwin also begins to turn to new "evolutionary" projects that illustrate how the theory could be applied to solving important problems in natural history. The letters also yield important new information about contemporary research.

This volume includes many letters previously unpublished, and chronicles a year that was enlivened by scientific controversy and filled with scientific queries and discussions relating to Darwin's transmutation theory. His love of botany and his expanding experimental program is well depicted by correspondence with professional botanists, horticulturalists, and hobbyists. Nine appendixes provide additional information from the Darwin Archive and from nineteenth-century publications. The letters also provide glimpses of life among the Victorian gentry and reveal the practical and emotional...

Volume 12 of The Correspondence of Charles Darwin provides the full authoritative texts of all known and available letters to and from Charles Darwin. The letters are accompanied by detailed explanatory footnotes and relevant supplementary materials, offering unparalleled insights into Darwin's experiments, thoughts, friendships, and family life. Volume 12 of this continuing series contains letters from 1864, when Darwin, despite continuing illness, was carrying out botanical experiments and working on his book, The Variation of Plants and Animals Under Domestication.

A fascinating insight into the intellectual development of one of the world's most influential scientists.

In observation of the bicentenary of Erasmus Darwin's death, Cambridge is publishing this collection of personal writings by his grandson Charles. This is the first unabridged publication of a book by Charles Darwin, and it contains a series of illuminating insights into his grandfather's life and work. With quotations from letters and candid comments by Charles Darwin about his books; and free of the conventions of scientific writing; this small volume of personal observations illuminates the life of a distinguished scientist as seen by his accomplished successor.