The Correspondence of Charles Darwin
The Correspondence of Charles Darwin
Frederick Burkhardt, American Council of Learned Societies
James Secord, University of Cambridge
The Editors of the Darwin Correspondence Project, University of Cambridge
£123.00
GBPThis pivotal volume in the definitive edition of Charles Darwin's letters covers the year 1871, the year in which Descent of Man, Darwin's first public statement on human evolution, was published. The large number of letters in this year - more than 800 - reflects the excitement this caused. Darwin depended on correspondence to collect data from a growing network of contacts all over the world and to discuss his emerging ideas with colleagues, many of whom he never met in person. This year also saw the marriage of Darwin's daughter Henrietta, the first of his children to marry; the volume includes her personal journal of the year, published here for the first time, which complements letters that hint at her important role in her father's work as both commentator and editor. Notes and appendixes put these fascinating and wide-ranging letters in context, making them accessible to both scholars and general readers.
- Complete transcriptions of more than 800 letters written and received by Charles Darwin in 1871, providing for the first time primary materials from a highly significant year of Darwin's life and work
- Includes clear and concise explanatory notes, helping readers to interpret the letters and making the material accessible to both scholars and general readers
- Provides the full text of Henrietta Darwin's personal journal for 1871 - an important and previously unpublished resource for those interested in the wider context of Darwin's life and in those family members who contributed to his work
Reviews & endorsements
Review of volumes 19 and 20: 'The editing and organization of these volumes is, as always, superb; the Darwin Correspondence really does set the standard against which all comparable projects have to be measured. In addition to a wonderfully erudite editorial apparatus (the footnotes alone contain a wealth of invaluable information), all the surviving letters Darwin received are published … as well as by dates, topics and so on … the importance and usefulness of these volumes go well beyond the world of Darwin, or even studies of the many forms of nineteenth-century evolutionism. No Victorianist should be without them.' Jim Endersby, British Journal for the History of Science
Product details
April 2012Hardback
9781107016484
1116 pages
234 × 165 × 61 mm
1.77kg
60 b/w illus. 3 colour illus.
Available
Table of Contents
- List of illustrations
- List of letters
- Introduction
- Acknowledgments
- List of provenances
- Note on editorial policy
- Darwin/Wedgwood genealogy
- Abbreviations and symbols
- The correspondence
- Appendixes:
- 1. Translations
- 2. Chronology
- 3. Diplomas presented to Charles Darwin
- 4. Presentation list for Descent
- 5. Reviews of Descent
- 6. Henrietta Emma Darwin's journal, 1871
- 7. Darwin's Queries about expression
- Manuscript alterations and comments
- Biographical register and index to correspondents
- Bibliography
- Notes on manuscript sources
- Index.
