Darwin, Charles

On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. London: John Murray, 1859



In 12s (7 7/8 x 5 in.; 199 x 126 mm, uncut). Folding lithographed diagram by W. West, half-title verso with quotations by Whewell and Bacon only, 32-page publisher's catalogue dated June, 1859 bound at end (Freeman's form 3); half-title and title-page with light crease at fore-edge margin, very occasional scattered soiling, chiefly marginal, fore-edges with a few tiny ink spots. Publisher's blind-panelled green grained cloth, spine gilt (Freeman's variant a), brown coated endpapers, front free endpaper with blindstamp of Leng Bookseller, Hull; spine slightly cocked, patch on lower spine slightly faded and abraded (possibly from a library label), front cover darkened, extremities worn, especially corners and head and foot of spine, joints rubbed, hinges cracked, fore-edge half of rear free endpaper cut away, mounting remnant of some kind on edges or rear pastedown.

Dibner 199; Freeman 373; Grolier/Horblit 23b; Grolier/Medicine 70b; Printing and the Mind of Man 344b; cf. Janet Browne, Darwin's Origin of Species: A Biography (2006)

First edition of "the most important single book in science" (Dibner, Heralds of Science). Darwin's entire text is essentially an introduction to, and amplification of, the iconoclastic thesis that he abstracts at the beginning of chapter 4: "many more individuals are born than can possibly survive. ... [I]ndividuals having any advantage, however slight, over others, would have the best chance of surviving and procreating their kind. ... [A]ny variation in the least degree injurious would be rigidly destroyed. This preservation of favourable variations and the rejection of injurious variations, I call Natural Selection."

Of the first edition of 1,250 copies, fifty-eight were distributed by Murray for review, promotion, and presentation, and Darwin reported that the balance was sold out on the first day of publication. Five further editions, each variously corrected and revised, appeared in Darwin's lifetime, as did eleven translations. Perhaps most significantly, On the Origin of Species inspired other scientists to take up the banner of evolution. Darwin's biographer Janet Browne credits "the ultimate triumph of evolutionary theory" to the unrelenting efforts of four of the author's friends: the geologist Charles Lyell, the botanist Joseph Hooker, the American naturalist Asa Gray, and the zoologist and anatomist Thomas H. Huxley.