Books

First separate edition of Darwin's first published book, describing the fieldwork that ultimately led to the publication of Origin of Species (1859). This is a beautifully preserved and unrestored copy in the original cloth. Darwin's Journal (now popularly known under its later title The Voyage of the Beagle) first appeared as the third volume of Fitzroy's Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle, published in May 1839. The popularity of Darwin's volume exceeded the companion volumes, which prompted Colburn to bring out a separate edition in August 1839, printed from the same sheets, but with prelims [i-iv] cancelled and [v-vi] discarded. As Freeman notes, of Darwin's books this "is undoubtedly the most often read and stands second only to On the Origin of Species as the most often printed" (p. 31). "The five years of the voyage were the most important event in Darwin's intellectual life and in the history of biological science" (DSB). Darwin himself would state that "The voyage of the 'Beagle' has been by far the most important event in my life, and has determined my whole career... I have always felt that I owe to the voyage the first real training or education of my mind; I was led to attend closely to several branches of natural history, and thus my powers of observation were improved" (Life and Letters I, p. 61). Octavo. Original dark blue fine-diaper cloth (Freeman's variant a), spine lettered in gilt and ruled in blind, covers decoratively panelled in blind, yellow coated endpapers, edges uncut. Housed in a blue quarter morocco solander box by the Chelsea Bindery. With 2 folding engraved maps, 4 woodcuts in text. 16 pp. publisher's advertisements dated August 1839 and undated 8 pp. prospectus for Colburn's Standard Modern Novelists series at rear. Bookseller's ticket (William Brown of Edinburgh) on front pastedown. Spine sunned, ends bumped, corners minimally rubbed, a few faint marks to cloth but on the whole remarkably fresh, front inner hinge starting but holding firm, contents generally clean, with occasional spotting, maps a little browned with resulting offset, second map partly split along fold: a very good copy. Freeman 11. Francis Darwin, ed., The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, 1887.

An in-depth narrative of Charles Darwin's landmark journey on the H.M.S. Beagle, where he conducted research that led to groundbreaking theories in natural history and geology.