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: 146648

London: John Murray, 1880.

Sixth edition of the “certainly the most important biological book ever written” (Freeman). Octavo, bound in three quarter morocco over marbled boards with gilt titles to the spine, all edges marbled, marbled endpapers, illustrated with a color plate opposite page 18 and a folding plate bound at page page 90. In very good condition with rubbing to the extremities, bookplate to the front pastedown with matching ownership signature to the front flyleaf, “Gilbert C. Bourne” possibly the British zoologist, annotations on blanks throughout.

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).