Books

First edition of the author's account of his collecting expedition from 1854 to 1862, during which he first conceived the principle of natural selection; with the ownership signature of Charles Bunbury, Charles Lyell's brother in law and a skilled botanist, on the half-title of volume II, dated the year of publication. Bunbury read Wallace carefully, speaking of him in his autobiography, and discussed species mutability with Darwin. Arriving in Malaya on 20 April 1854, Wallace spent eight years visiting every important island in the archipelago, many of which more than once. "His efforts, drawing on perhaps 70 separate expeditions (requiring some 14,000 miles of island-to-island sailing in native crafts), reaped the astonishing harvest of 126,500 natural history specimens, including more than 200 new species of birds and well over 1000 new insects" (ODNB). The work also recounts "his efforts to capture specimens of the bird of paradise, his pursuit of the orang-utan, his activities in New Guinea (where he was one of the first Europeans to set up a residence), his various dealings with the region's many native peoples, and numerous vignettes conveying the joys and vicissitudes of the field naturalist's work" (ibid.). It was a huge success upon publication, drawing praise for its artistic format, literary style, and scientific merits. While recovering from illness in Halmahera in 1858, Wallace theorized that natural selection was the driving force of evolution, First edition of the author's account of his collecting expedition from 1854 to 1862, during which he first conceived the principle of natural selection; with the ownership signature of Charles Bunbury, Charles Lyell's brother in law and a skilled botanist, on the half-title of volume II, dated the year of publication. Bunbury read Wallace carefully, speaking of him in his autobiography, and discussed species mutability with Darwin. Arriving in Malaya on 20 April 1854, Wallace spent eight years visiting every important island in the archipelago, many of which more than once. "His efforts, drawing on perhaps 70 separate expeditions (requiring some 14,000 miles of island-to-island sailing in native crafts), reaped the astonishing harvest of 126,500 natural history specimens, including more than 200 new species of birds and well over 1000 new insects" (ODNB). The work also recounts "his efforts to capture specimens of the bird of paradise, his pursuit of the orang-utan, his activities in New Guinea (where he was one of the first Europeans to set up a residence), his various dealings with the region's many native peoples, and numerous vignettes conveying the joys and vicissitudes of the field naturalist's work" (ibid.). It was a huge success upon publication, drawing praise for its artistic format, literary style, and scientific merits. While recovering from illness in Halmahera in 1858, Wallace theorized that natural selection was the driving force of evolution, leading to his groundbreaking treatise published in 1870. "It was during the period from 1854 to 1862 that Wallace fully came into his own as a zoogeographer. The Malay archipelago provided the ideal geographical setting for species distribution studies, not only as an end in themselves, but as evidence critical to elucidation of the evolutionary process" (ibid.). Like Wallace, Bunbury (1809-1886) travelled extensively; he collected specimens in South America and South Africa and accompanied Lyell on an expedition to Madeira in 1853. An astute follower of contemporary biological and botanical advancements, Bunbury's autobiography includes letters to Lyell in which he notes his agreement with Wallace's zoogeographical theories: "Is any instance known of any of the monkey kind being able to swim I never remember to have read of such. What Wallace and Bates observed about the range of various species of monkeys being limited by the great South-American rivers, appears most natural. I should have been surprised if it had been otherwise" (Lyell, vol. II, p. 230). Bunbury also met with Darwin on several occasions and recounted that, on 20 June 1856, he "had an interesting talk with him about species, and the various questions connected with their origin, distribution, and diffusion... I was very glad to find that there was some prospect of his publishing his views on the subject" (ibid., vol. II, p. 98). READ MORE Two vols, octavo (186 x 125). Contemporary green half morocco, spines divided by 5 raised bands into 6 compartments framed in gilt, second and third lettered in gilt and dated at foot, blue and green marbled sides and endpapers, top edges gilt, green silk bookmarker to vol. II. Wood-engraved frontispieces, 6 engraved plates, 2 folding maps, one of which a route map tinted blue and the other of the archipelago, numerous illustrations and maps in text. Engraved bookplates of the Royal Societies Club Library dated 4 March 1899 on front pastedowns. Joints and extremities expertly recoloured, spines browned, a handful of pencil annotations to contents, a few gatherings of appendix to vol. II unopened: a very good copy. Freeman A1013; Howgego II W10; Norman 2176; Troelstra, pp. 446-8. Florence Clemens, "Conrad's Malaysia", in Robert D. Hamner, ed., Joseph Conrad: Third World Perspectives, 1990; Katherine Murray Lyell, ed., The Life of Sir Charles J. F. Bunbury, Bart, 190

The Gulag Archipelago is a three-volume, non-fiction work by Russian writer Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn that was first published in 1973. It covers the Soviet Union's forced labor camp system. The extensive work combines historical research, Solzhenitsyn's own experiences as a Gulag prisoner, and the testimonies of other inmates to describe the brutalities of the Gulag.