On the Origin of Species: a Facsimile of the First Edition. With an Introduction by Ernst Mayr.

DARWIN, Charles; MAYR, Ernst:

Published by Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964., 1964

About this Item

First printing. xxvii + Reprint in Facsimile [ix, 502 pp]. Original cloth. Near Fine, in near fine dust jacket (unclipped). 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 (Mayr, Introduction). '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.' 'One of the things that most people don't realize, in fact some people have even denied, was the conceptual achievements of Darwin. For instance, even such a usually insightful person like George Gaylord Simpson stated, 'Darwin was no philosopher'. Well, Darwin was one of the greatest of all philosophers, but that wasn't recognized when Simpson made that statement in about 1964. I felt that The Origin, particularly the first edition of . . . of 1859, was too much neglected and the reprints didn't keep the same paging so you couldn't refer to Darwin's original statements. So, I persuaded Harvard University Press in 1964 to publish a facsimile edition of the first edition. And since I had just published the, with Harvard Press, the highly successful Animal Species [and Evolution] in order to . . . to oblige me they said yes, they would publish such a facsimile edition. Well, it has been selling ever since [looks like it was last reprinted in 2003-TK]. In fact, I think last year it sold in one single year 2200. It's been . . . Darwin's Origin has been one of the most successful books that Harvard Press has ever published and I get 5¢ per copy for my foreword, the new foreword I wrote, and so I am being enriched by courtesy of Charles Darwin' (transcript of part 130/150 of a 1997 interview with Walter Bock, available on YouTube). Seller Inventory # 25237

Bibliographic Details

Title: On the Origin of Species: a Facsimile of the...

Publisher: Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1964.

Publication Date: 1964

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Near Fine

Dust Jacket Condition: Near Fine

Edition: 1st Edition