Cornerstone of Evolutionary Theory, ushering in a new era of thought about the nature of man
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.
Price: $127,500.00
About the item
First Edition, one of only 1250 copies. 1 vols. 8vo. Bound with half-title and without publisher’s adverts. Folding diagram lithographed by W. West. Late 19th-century half brown morocco by Zaehnsdorf, spine lettered and ruled in gilt, raised bands, marbled sides and endpapers, top edge gilt, brown silk bookmarker. Red morocco book label of Valentine Hollingsworth (1883-1942). Front joint repaired. Light rubbing, slight darkening to spine, a few light spots of foxing to preliminaries but otherwise crisp and clean, tiny closed tear at foot of title page, folding diagram with short closed tear and neat repair at foot: a very good, smartly bound copy. Freeman 373; PMM 344; Norman 593; Garrison-Morton 220; Grolier/Horblit 23b; Brent, Charles Darwin, p. 427.
Item #372885
"[T]he most important single work in science, brought man to his true place in nature” (Heralds of Science 199).
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).
“The publication of the Origin of Species ushered in a new era in our thinking about the nature of man. The intellectual revolution it caused and the impact it had on man’s concept of himself and the world were greater than those caused by the works of Copernicus, Newton, and the great physicists of more recent times... Every modern discussion of man’s future, the population explosion, the struggle for existence, the purpose of man and the universe, and man’s place in nature rests on Darwin” (Mayr).
