Origins: Selected Letters of Charles Darwin, 1822-1859. Anniversary edition. (Selected Letters of C. Darwin)

288 Pages·2008·1.96 MB·English

by  Frederick Burkhardt

ORIGINS
SELECTED LETTERS OF CHARLES DARWIN, 1822–1859
Support for editing the first seven volumes of the Correspondence
of Charles Darwin, and volume 13, from which these selections
havebeenmade,hasbeenreceivedfromtheNationalEndowment
fortheHumanities,theNationalScienceFoundation,theAndrew
W.MellonFoundation,theAlfredP.SloanFoundation,theBritish
Academy, the British Ecological Society, the Isaac Newton Trust,
the Natural Environment Research Council, the Royal Society
of London, the Wellcome Trust and the Stifterverband fu¨r die
DeutscheWissenschaft.TheNationalEndowmentfortheHumanities’
grants (Nos. RE-23166-75-513, RE-27067-77-1359, RE-00082-80-
1628, RE-20166-82, RE-20480-85, RE-20764-89, RE-20913-91, RE-
21097-93, and RZ-20393-99) were from its Program for Editions;
theNationalScienceFoundation’sfundingoftheworkwasunder
grants Nos. SOC-75-15840, SES-7912492, SES-8517189, SBR-
9020874,andSES-0135528.
PortraitofCharlesDarwin,copyofasketchbyGeorgeRichmond,1840.
BypermissionoftheSyndicsofCambridgeUniversityLibrary.
ORIGINS
SELECTED LETTERS OF
CHARLES DARWIN
1822 1859
–
EDITED BY
FREDERICK BURKHARDT
FOREWORD BY STEPHEN JAY GOULD
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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©CambridgeUniversityPress2008
Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithout
thewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
FirstpublishedunderthetitleCharlesDarwin’sletters:a
selection1825–1859,hardback,1996;paperback,1998
Revisededition2008
Reprinted2008
PrintedintheUnitedKingdomattheUniversityPress,Cambridge
AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
ISBN978-0-521-89862-1hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceor
accuracyofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredto
inthispublication,anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuch
websitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate.
Dedicatedto
TheAndrewW.MellonFoundation
fortheirgeneroussupportof
theDarwinCorrespondenceProject
overmanyyears

Contents
ForewordbyStephenJayGould pageix
Introduction xxi
NoteontheText xxvi
Acknowledgments xxvii
SymbolsandAbbreviations xxviii
Prologue xxix
Shrewsbury 1
Edinburgh 6
Cambridge 11
TheOffer 16
TheVoyage:SouthAmerica–EastCoast 21
TheVoyage:SouthAmerica–WestCoast 39
HomewardBound 55
1837 61
1838 71
1839–1843 77
1844 88
1845–1846 96
1847 102
1848 108
1849 116
1850 125
1851 130
vii
Contents
1852–1854 134
1855 147
1856 161
1857 177
1858 200
1859 212
BiographicalRegister 226
BibliographyofBiographicalSources 242
BibliographicalNote 244
FurtherReading 246
Index 247
viii
Foreword
A LIFE’S EPISTOLARY DRAMA
stephen jay gould
Thisbookshouldbeviewedasanintensedramaofaparticularkind,
andinanhonoredgenre.Epistolarybooksdonotappealtoeveryone
(thoughtheyrankamongmypersonalfavorites),butstoriestoldas
lettersformanancientandpopulartraditionfromStPaulonward.
Epistolarynon-fictionembodiestheaddedvirtueofanactuallife,as
told(howevertruly,andwhateverhidden)bytheprotagonist.
Manyhistorianshavelamented thedeclineofletterswritten on
preservablepaperasafrightfullosstothetrade.Moderntechnol-
ogyhasplacedusinaparadoxicalsituation.Weusuallyassumethat
informationbecomesricherasweapproachthepresentday—for
more kinds ofrecordsoughtto become available,and lessdeteri-
oration and loss should occur. But we now send most of our
communique´s but once over a telephone wire into permanent
oblivion, and many (if not most) of our letters now exist only in
thecyberspaceofe-mailandothersimilardevices(wheretheymay,
ofcourse,betransferredtopaper,butwilljustaslikelybedumped
intoalostrealmwithourphonecalls).
CharlesDarwin’slife(1809–1882)fallssquarelyintoaninterme-
diary time of maximal information — after an older time of too
much information lost (and no adequate postal service), and
beforeourmodernageofelectronicobliteration.Theintellectual
leadersofDarwin’sdaywrotevoluminousletters;inoptimalcases,
wemayhavedailyrecordsofascientificcollaboration(seeMartin
Rudwick’s The great Devonian controversy, for such a fascinating
record of Sedgwick and Murchison’s daily contact in their early
collaborations on establishing a geological time scale — a rich
tapestry that can rarely be equalled in any other time, even by
oralhistoriansworkingwithlivingsubjectstoday).
ix