Darwin, Charles

i) 1869, original green blind-stamped cloth (Freeman’s variant c), [Freeman 387], embossed stamp to front free endpaper, ownership booklabel, binding slightly worn and soiled, tears to head and foot of spine, hinges splitting; ii) 1869, original green blind-stamped cloth (variant not in Freeman), 16pp. publisher’s catalogue at end (dated January 1871), [Freeman 387], occasional tears and loss to edges, ownership bookplate, recased; both 8vo, fifth edition (“tenth thousand”), half-title, folding lithographed plate, occasional spotting (2)

As noted by Freeman, “the fifth edition of 1869 was of 2,000 copies and was again much revised. It is in this one that Darwin used the expression ‘survival of the fittest’, Herbert Spencer’s term, for the first time…” These two copies are in different binding variants, including one NOT RECORDED BY FREEMAN. The binding is presumably a few years after the publication date since the publisher’s catalogue is dated from 1871. After 1869 the next edition, the sixth, was published in 1872.