149 years ago today

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149 years ago today, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was released to the public. It was instantly sold out. For a "secret" formulation of a mechanism by which evolution could occur, there certainly was a lot of excitement about it, even if On the Origin was not a book Darwin had intended on publishing.

Please do not misunderstand; Darwin had long been working on a volume about evolution by natural selection. It was going to be called, simply enough, Natural Selection, but A.R. Wallace forced Darwin's hand. 150 years ago this past summer, an essay on natural selection by Wallace arrived and caught Darwin off-guard.

Fortunately for Darwin, he was already plugged-into the scientific establishment of his day, and his friends came to his aid to show that he had been working out his ideas on evolution for decades. It was also fortunate that Wallace was of a kind enough disposition to cede priority to Darwin, but with the cat prematurely out of the bag, Darwin couldn't drag his feet with his major monograph. On the Origin of Species is a shorter, but no less powerful, abstract.

In fact, Darwin's haste might have provided an unexpected benefit. As Martin Rudwick suggested in The Meaning of Fossils, the new format allowed the work to be more accessible (and thus more influential) than it would have been as a gigantic scientific monograph. Perhaps Darwin was not the most skilled writer, but the more popular format served his theory well.

Everyone did not simply accept natural selection as an evolutionary mechanism as soon as they read Darwin's book, of course. Some felt that it was too violent and brutal, or that it could only explain stability of species (not transmutation). Today we recognize natural selection as being key to our understanding evolution, but even if it was not always regarded with such prestige, Darwin's work was admired for its detailed attempt to answer the question of the origin of species. The importance of On the Origin of Species goes beyond the theory explicated in its pages, and I look forward to the various celebrations (informal and academic) of evolutionary science in the coming year.

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149 years ago today, Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection briefly appeared on shelves. I say "briefly" because it sold out immediately.

Actually, I don't think that was the case. The publisher - John Murray - did sell out the first edition to booksellers and such, but I'm fairly sure that it didn't get bought out immediately by the public.

I still think what I wrote fits, although I might change the wording so there isn't the same confusion. My point was that there was a lot of interest in the book right away, and that a lot of people (particularly naturalists) knew what was coming. On the Origin of Species didn't appear out of nowhere.

I thought it was sold out to subscribers, i.e., it never hit the shelves because all the copies were shipped to known addresses. Is that totally bonkers?

You're probably right. I have to say that I'm not sure. I'm sure it was on shelves at some point, heh, but the picture I put together wasn't quite right. Sounds likes the making of an interesting blog post, though.

It was on shelves (and railway station bookstands) as far as I remember. (My Darwin bios are in my office, so I cant check). I'm not sure about the subscriber-only idea.

It was also fortunate that Wallace was of a kind enough disposition to cede priority to Darwin

I just noticed this. You need to remember that the Linnean Society papers were read before Wallace heard of the deal brokered by Lyell & Hooker. There wasn't much he could do after that.

By John Lynch (not verified) on 24 Nov 2008 #permalink