This volume is part of the definitive edition of letters written by and to Charles Darwin, the most celebrated naturalist of the nineteenth century. Notes and appendixes put these fascinating and wide-ranging letters in context, making the letters accessible to both scholars and general readers. Darwin depended on correspondence to collect data from all over the world, and to discuss his emerging ideas with scientific colleagues, many of whom he never met in person. The letters are published chronologically. In 1881, Darwin published his final book, The Formation of Vegetable Mould through the Action of Worms. He reflected on reactions to his previous book, The Power of Movement in Plants, and worked on two papers for the Linnean Society on the action of carbonate of ammonia on plants. In this year, Darwin's elder brother, Erasmus, died, and a second grandchild, also named Erasmus, was born.
List of Illustrations
List of Letters
Introduction
Acknowledgments
List of Provenances
Note on Editorial Policy
Darwin/Wedgwood Genealogy
Abbreviations and Symbols
The Correspondence
Appendixes:
I. Translations
II. Chronology
III. Diplomas
IV. Presentation List for Earthworms
V. Reviews of Earthworms
Manuscript Alterations and Comments
Biographical Register and Index to Correspondents
Bibliography
Notes on Manuscript Sources
Index
Frederick Burkhardt (1912–2007), the founder of the Darwin Correspondence Project, was President of Bennington College, Vermont (1947–57), and President of the American Council of Learned Societies (1957–74). Before founding the Darwin Correspondence Project in 1974, he was already at work on an edition of the papers of the philosopher William James. He received the Modern Language Association of America's first Morton N. Cohen Award for a Distinguished Edition of Letters in 1991, the Founder's Medal of the Society for the History of Natural History in 1997, the Thomas Jefferson Gold Medal of the American Philosophical Society in 2003 and a special citation for outstanding service to the history of science from the History of Science Society in 2005.
James A. Secord has served as Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project since 2006. He is also Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge, a Bye-Fellow of Christ's College, and a Fellow of the British Academy. Besides his work for the Darwin Project, his research focuses on the history of science from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. His book, Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (2000) won the Pfizer Prize of the History of Science Society.