Books

New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1871. First American edition. Hardcover. Good+. 2 vol. 8vo. [3], iv-vi, [1], 2-409, [1], [2] (pages of publisher's advertisements) [2]; [3], iv-v, [4], 2-436, [6] (pages of publisher's advertisements), [2] pp. Orange-red cloth with black decorations on the boards and gold lettering on the spines. Yellow coated endpapers and pastedowns. With several in-text illustrations. Freeman 129-131. Oxford DNB, Adrian Desmond, James Moore and Janet Browne, "Darwin, Charles Robert, (1809-1882)". With the postscript in volume two, both versos of our title pages are blank. Both title pages dated 1871. These volumes contain the first appearance of the word evolution, and a verbal description of humanity's ancient ancestors, which was no doubt distrubing to Victorian sensibilities. Darwin painted human ancestors as hairy tree dwellers. The majority of the book however, focuses on sexual selection among other animal species. The first print run was very popular,…

In 'The Descent of Man,' Charles Darwin applies evolutionary theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection.

Original first editions published by John Murray in 1871 can be identified by green cloth boards with gilt details on the spine and by the presence of advertisements at the end of the volume dated January 1871.