Description:

Darwin Charles


Charles Darwin Autograph Letter Signed, While Working on His Masterpiece, "On The Origin Of Species"

  

Charles Darwin two page letter on card-style bifolium stationery measures 4.875" x 7.75" as folded. Dated "Jan 31", from his home in Down Farnborough Kent, and boldly signed by Charles Darwin in full signature "Charles Darwin". Docketing on last page by Salt's office. Hole at intersecting folds and some discoloration to edge of first page. Overall very good condition, with a bold signature by Darwin.

 

Darwin writes to his lawyer, Thomas Salt, in full regarding his family's home in Shrewsbury:

 

 

"My dear Sir

 

I am much obliged by your note received yesterday.

 

If it lies in your power, I should be much obliged if you could dispose of the £600 Shrewsbury St. mortgage for me in the course of the next month or two. It consists of two mortgages of £400 & £200, but I should not wish to dispose of either separately. If necessary I would pay the Transfer.

 

I will not forget to enquire, should I meet any likely persons, about the Curacy & House.

 

My dear Sir / Yours very faithfully

 

Charles Darwin

 

Mss. Salt & Son".

 

In the background of this letter, Darwin had already been devising his theories of evolution and natural selection since his return from his trip to Chile on The Beagle in 1936. By mid-March 1837, Darwin was speculating in his Red Notebook on the possibility that "one species does change into another" to explain the geographical distribution of living species. His thoughts on lifespan, asexual reproduction and sexual reproduction developed in his "B" notebook around mid-July on to variation in offspring "to adapt & alter the race to changing world". He sketched branching descent, then a genealogical  branching of a single evolutionary tree, in which "It is absurd to talk of one animal being higher than another", discarding Lamarck's independent lineages progressing to higher forms.

 

His climactic masterpiece on the theory of evolution and the descent of man was held back, concerned with his fear of how it would be received, proclaiming "it is like confessing a murder" and the subject matter "so surrounded with prejudices". However by 1858 he was pressured to release his book which at the time was not yet complete, however similar theories were being developed by others thus creating pressure to be first. He avoided explicit discussion of human origins, but implied the significance of his work with the sentence; "Light will be thrown on the origin of man and his history." His theory is simply stated in the introduction:

 

As many more individuals of each species are born than can possibly survive; and as, consequently, there is a frequently recurring struggle for existence, it follows that any being, if it vary however slightly in any manner profitable to itself, under the complex and sometimes varying conditions of life, will have a better chance of surviving, and thus be naturally selected. From the strong principle of inheritance, any selected variety will tend to propagate its new and modified form.

 

Darwin continued to experiment and revamp "On The Origin Of Species" through six editions. Darwin first used the word "evolution" in The Descent of Man in 1871, before adding it in 1872 to the 6th edition of "Origin".



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