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The letters in this volume cover two of the most momentous years in Darwin's life. Begun in 1856 and the fruit of twenty years of study and reflection, Darwin's manuscript on the species question was a little more than half finished, and at least two years from publication, when in June 1858 Darwin unexpectedly received a letter and a manuscript from Alfred Russel Wallace indicating that he too had independently formulated a theory of natural selection. The letters detail the various stages in the preparation of what was to become one of the world's most famous works: Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, published by John Murray in November 1859. They reveal the first impressions of Darwin's book given by his most trusted confidants, and they relate Darwin's anxious response to the early reception of his theory by friends, family members, and prominent naturalists. This volume provides the capstone to Darwin's remarkable efforts for more than two decades to solve one of nature's greatest riddles - the origin of species.
An essential resource for paleontologists, biologists, geologists, and teachers, The Rise of Animals is the best single reference on one of earth's most significant events.
Ever since the threads of seventeenth-century natural philosophy began to coalesce into an understanding of the natural world, printed artifacts such as laboratory notebooks, research journals, college textbooks, and popular paperbacks have been instrumental to the development of what we think of today as “science.” But just as the history of science involves more than recording discoveries, so too does the study of print culture extend beyond the mere cataloguing of books. In both disciplines, researchers attempt to comprehend how social structures of power, reputation, and meaning permeate both the written record and the intellectual scaffolding through which scientific debate takes pl...