John Murray originally printed 1250 copies of the book which "caused a greater upheaval in man's thinking than any other scientific advance since the rebirth of science in the Renaissance" (Ernst Mayr). It is also considered "the most influential scientific work of the 19th century" (Horblit) and "certainly the most important biological book ever written" (Freeman).
Despite its 490 pages, it was intended only as an "abstract" of a far larger work. Yet for years Darwin had showed a marked reluctance to print anything on the subject of evolution. Although he developed his theory on the origin of the species in 1838, he communicated it to no one. In 1842 he drew up a rough sketch of the argument, expanding this into an essay only to be published in the event of his death. Once he had prepared the third part of the Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle for publication, he shelved the species question "and started on eight tedious years' study" of living and fossil barnacles. His painstaking work on their structure and classification enabled him to acquire first-hand knowledge of the amount of variation to be found in nature. In April 1856 he described his theory of natural selection to Charles Lyell, and that summer began work on the book that Lyell urged him to write. On 18 June 1858 he received the shock letter from Alfred Russell Wallace which appeared to be "a perfect summary of the views which he had worked out during the preceding twenty years" (DSB III, p.573). In a compromise that was fair to both, Darwin presented his own and Wallace's papers before the Linnean Society of London on 1 July 1858, and they were published together on 20 August of that year. Unable to squander any more time over the writing of his "big book," Darwin then set about writing the "abstract" which we know as the Origin with the encouragement of Joseph Hooker.
Its impact can hardly be overstated. Ernst Mayr writes in his introduction to the 1964 facsimile edition: "The publication of the Origin of Species ushered in a new era in our thinking about the nature of man. The intellectual revolution it caused and the impact it had on man's concept of himself and the world were greater than those caused by the works of Copernicus, Newton, and the great physicists of more recent times ... Every modern discussion of man's future, the population explosion, the struggle for existence, the purpose of man and the universe, and man's place in nature rests on Darwin."
A very good copy of this landmark work with the ads dated June, 1859. It was previously owned by the scientist Lancelot Albert Forscey, and John Rizzo Naudi.
Dibner, Heralds, 199; Eimas Heirs, 1724; Freeman 373; Garrison-Morton, 220; Grolier Science, 32b; Horblit 23b; Norman, 593; PMM, 344; Sparrow Milestones, 49; Waller, 10786.
