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First Edition. Original cloth, large 8vo. Near Fine, in near fine dust jacket. This edition is now out of print in cloth. 'Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species is the most important and yet least read scientific work in the history of science. Now James T. Costa experienced field biologist, theorist on the evolution of insect sociality, and passionate advocate for teaching Darwin in a society in which a significant proportion of adults believe that life on earth has been created in its present form within the last 10,000 years has given a new voice to this epochal work. By leading readers line by line through the Origin, Costa brings evolution's foundational text to life for a new generation. The Annotated Origin is the edition of Darwin's masterwork used in Costa's course at Western Carolina University and in Harvard's Darwin Summer Course at Oxford. A facsimile of the first edition of 1859 is accompanied by Costa's extensive marginal annotations, drawing on his extensive experience with Darwin's ideas in the field, lab, and classroom. This edition makes available an accessible, useful, and practical resource for anyone reading the Origin for the first time or for those who want to reread it with the insights and perspective that a working biologist can provide' (Harvard University Press Web site). 'Clearly worth attention . . . Costa makes use of his experience as a field naturalist and his knowledge of the modern literature of evolutionary biology to illumine many passages in Darwin's work' (Richard C. Lewontin, The New York Review of Books). 'We have long had the simple facsimile of the all-important first edition of the Origin, published by the same press (Harvard) with a short introduction by the eminent evolutionist Ernst Mayr. Now we have a much expanded work, with the most interesting comments and brief essays by a first-class biologist lined up on the pages against the original text' (Michael Ruse, Quarterly Review of Biology). 'On the Origin of Species has too long been one of those worthy books whose fate is to be lauded but unread. Jim Costa's deft commentary an authoritative and engaging mix of history and science will change that. The Origin is forbidding and inaccessible no longer it has evolved! The Annotated Origin of Species restores, for modern readers, the freshness and excitement that made it a bestseller when it first appeared. Charles Darwin, I'm sure, couldn't wish for a better 200th birthday present' (Andrew Berry, editor of Infinite Tropics: An Alfred Russel Wallace Anthology). 'Despite being 150 years old, the Origin is a living text for biologists. It is full of unsurpassed natural history observations, a model of careful scientific argument that still can catch the imagination with the grandeur of the views it puts forward. Jim Costa has provided an exceptionally lucid explanation' (Janet Browne, author of Charles Darwin: The Power of Place). 'The Annotated Origin is a culminating and, in an original manner of its own, the most useful of the centennial Darwin publications. It gives you the choice of reading page by page the original Origin, or its modern interpretation, or both together' (Edward O. Wilson). Seller Inventory # 25086
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