On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.

DARWIN, Charles.

Item Number: 145587

London: John Murray, 1866.

Fourth edition, eighth thousand, one of 1500 copies of “certainly the most important biological book ever written” (Freeman), one of the smallest printings for any of the six editions published in Darwin’s lifetime, save for the first edition of 1250 copies. Octavo, bound in original green publisher’s cloth with gilt titles to the spine, illustrated with a folding plate bound at page 130, with April 1867 advertisements. In good condition with a few small losses to the crown and foot of the spine, some splitting to the interior hinges, and some rubbing to the extremities, spine, front and rear panels.

Darwin “revolutionized our methods of thinking and our outlook on the natural order of things. The recognition that constant change is the order of the universe had been finally established and a vast step forward in the uniformity of nature had been taken” (PMM 344). “Without question a watershed work in the history of modern life sciences, Darwin’s Origin elaborated a proposition that species slowly evolve from common ancestors through the mechanism of natural selection. As he himself expected, Darwin’s theory became, and continues to be in some circles, the object of intense controversy” (American Philosophical Society). “The five years [of Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle] were the most important event in Darwin’s intellectual life and in the history of biological science. Darwin sailed with no formal training. He returned a hard-headed man of science… The experiences of his five years in the Beagle, how he dealt with them, and what they led to, built up into a process of epoch-making importance in the history of thought” (PMM).