Darwin, Charles
£26,000
Rare Books, Manuscripts, Maps & Photographs
Auction: 28 January 2015 at 11:00 GMT
Description
On the origin of species by means of natural selection. London: John Murray, 1859. First edition, 8vo in 12s, half-title, folding diagram, 32pp. publishers' advertisements dated June 1859 at end, chocolate brown endpapers with binder's ticket of Edmonds and Remnants on rear endpaper, original green blindstamped cloth, lettered in gilt on spine, Binding Variant B (see footnote), neatly rebacked retaining the original spine, hinges neatly repaired, slightly spotted, very slight loss at extreme inner margin of title
Footnote
Note: On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin is widely regarded as one of the most important books ever written. Indeed, there is scarcely an area of human endeavour that has not been impacted by Darwin’s theory, the terms Darwinism and Darwinian now an integral part of the modern lexicon. "The most important biological book ever written. [Freeman 373.] There is only one issue of the first edition, the text being identical in all copies. There are however very slight differences in the binding, this copy corresponding to variant "B."
Binding variant: Variant B: the L of LONDON is above the right-hand upright of the H in JOHN and the right-hand upright of the second N in LONDON is well to the right of the upright of the second R in MURRAY.