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Life and Letters of Charles Darwin #2

Life and Letters of Charles Darwin — Volume 2 by Charles Darwin (Unabridged Content)

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This book, the second of three-volumes detailing the life of Charles Darwin, published five years after his death, was edited by his son Francis, who was his father's collaborator in experiments in botany and who after his death took on the responsibility of overseeing the publication of his remaining manuscript works and letters. In the preface to the first volume, Francis Darwin explains his editorial principles: 'In choosing letters for publication I have been largely guided by the wish to illustrate my father's personal character. But his life was so essentially one of work, that a history of the man could not be written without following closely the career of the author.' Among the family history, anecdotes and reminiscences of scientific colleagues is a short autobiographical essay which Charles Darwin wrote for his children and grandchildren, rather than for publication. This account of Darwin the man has never been bettered.

599 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1887

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About the author

Charles Darwin

2,344 books3,376 followers
Charles Robert Darwin of Britain revolutionized the study of biology with his theory, based on natural selection; his most famous works include On the Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871).

Chiefly Asa Gray of America advocated his theories.

Works of Jacques Martin Barzun include Darwin, Marx, Wagner (1941).

Charles Robert Darwin, an eminent English collector and geologist, proposed and provided scientific evidence of common ancestors for all life over time through the process that he called. The scientific community and the public in his lifetime accepted the facts that occur and then in the 1930s widely came to see the primary explanation of the process that now forms modernity. In modified form, the foundational scientific discovery of Darwin provides a unifying logical explanation for the diversity of life.

Darwin developed his interest in history and medicine at Edinburgh University and then theology at Cambridge. His five-year voyage on the Beagle established him as a geologist, whose observations and supported uniformitarian ideas of Charles Lyell, and publication of his journal made him as a popular author. Darwin collected wildlife and fossils on the voyage, but their geographical distribution puzzled him, who investigated the transmutation and conceived idea in 1838. He discussed his ideas but needed time for extensive research despite priority of geology. He wrote in 1858, when Alfred Russel Wallace sent him an essay, which described the same idea, prompting immediate joint publication.

His book of 1859 commonly established the dominant scientific explanation of diversification in nature. He examined human sexuality in Selection in Relation to Sex , and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals followed. A series of books published his research on plants, and he finally examined effect of earthworms on soil.

A state funeral recognized Darwin in recognition of preeminence and only four other non-royal personages of the United Kingdom of the 19th century; people buried his body in Westminster abbey, close to those of John Herschel and Isaac Newton.

Her fathered Francis Darwin, astronomer George Darwin, and politician, economist and eugenicist Leonard Darwin.

(Arabic: تشارلز داروين)

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827 reviews44 followers
June 5, 2019
I think your reaction to this book will be heavily dependent on your interest in and background knowledge of geology and botany. Almost the entire main text is made up of letters dealing with technical debates in these two broad fields and a good grounding is required in order to understand even what the questions under discussion are. For me, the geology was within my grasp and the botany was not and I ended up skipping most of the latter. Those hoping for insight into Darwin's character would certainly be better off reading only the first volume of letters.
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