The Descent of Man.

DARWIN, Charles.

Item Number: 145583

London: John Murray, 1871.

First edition, second issue of both volumes of this seminal work in the history of evolutionary biology and anthropology. Octavo, two volumes, original green cloth. With all of the issue points unique to the first edition: in the first volume, “transmitted” as the first word on p. 297; in the second, the printer’s note on the verso of the half-title, errata on title verso, and postscript leaf after p. viii; both volumes with January ads. In very good condition with some rubbing to the crown and foot of the spine of both volumes. Housed in a custom green cloth slipcase. 

The book, in its first edition, contains two parts, the descent of man itself, and selection in relation to sex. The word 'evolution' occurs [Volume I, p. 2] for the first time in any of Darwin's works" (Freeman, 128-29). It also contains Darwin's important (and then controversial) statement that the extinct ancestors of Homo Sapiens would have been classified among the primates. "One of the ten most significant books ever written" (Sigmund Freud). Freeman 937; Garrison-Morton 170; Printing and the Mind of Man 169; Rieber 121.