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Charles Darwin's words first appeared in print as a student at Christ's College, Cambridge in 1829, and in almost every subsequent year of his life he published essays, articles, letters to editors, or other brief works. These shorter publications contain a wealth of valuable material. They represent an important part of the Darwin visible to the Victorian public, alongside his ever present sense of humor, and reveal an even wider variety of his scientific interests and abilities, which continued to his final days. This book brings together all known shorter publications and printed items Darwin wrote during his lifetime, including his first and his last publications, and the first publication, with A. R. Wallace, of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection. With over seventy newly discovered items, the book is fully edited and annotated, and contains original illustrations and a comprehensive bibliography.
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This page intentionally left blank C H A R L E S D A RW I N ’ S S H O RT E R P U B L I C AT I O N S , 1 8 2 9 – 1 8 8 3 Charles Darwin’s words first appeared in print when he was a student at Christ’s College, Cambridge, in 1829, and in almost every subsequent year of his life he published essays, articles, letters to editors, or other brief works. These shorter publications contain a wealth of valuable material. They represent an important part of the Darwin visible to the Victorian public. Alongside his ever-present sense of humour, they reveal an even wider variety of his scientific interests and abilities, which continued to his final days. This book brings together all the known shorter publications and printed items Darwin wrote during his lifetime, including his first and last publications, and the first publication, with A. R. Wallace, of the theory of evolution by natural selection. With over 70 newly discovered items, the book is fully edited and annotated, and contains original illustrations and a comprehensive bibliography. J o h n v a n W y h e is a historian of science based at the University of Cambridge. He is co-editing Darwin’s Beagle notebooks, also with Cambridge University Press. In 2002 he launched Darwin Online, the aim of which is to make freely available online all of Darwin’s publications, unpublished manuscripts and associated materials. Darwin Online is the largest publication on Darwin ever created and is used by millions of readers around the world. Van Wyhe lectures internationally, and appears frequently on TV, radio and in the press, to discuss the life and work of Darwin. CHARLES DARWIN’S SHORTER PUBLICATIONS 1829–1883 Edited by J O H N VA N W Y H E Christ’s College, Cambridge CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York www.cambridge.org Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9780521888097 © J. van Wyhe 2009 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provision of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published in print format 2009 ISBN-13 978-0-511-53448-5 eBook (NetLibrary) ISBN-13 978-0-521-88809-7 hardback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of urls for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication, and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate. Contents Foreword by Janet Browne and Jim Secord Introduction Acknowledgements page xv xix xxiv C H A R L E S