The Foundation of the Origin of Species: Two Essays Written in 1842 and 1844 by Charles Darwin (Cambridge Library Collection - Darwin, Evolution and Genetics) Paperback – 20 July 2009

This collection of primary sources contains two "previously" unpublished essays (before 1909) written by Charles Darwin - one in 1842 and one in 1844. These are pretty much the earliest sketches of his Origin of Species. However, at the time they were originally composed, they were not meant to lead up to the 1859 book because in 1842 and 1844, there was no way of knowing circumstances that would eventually occur (i.e. Alfred Russel Wallace's independent derivation of natural selection and similar evolutionary theory). What is very interesting out of all of this is seeing the extent of development of Darwin's ideas by 1844. The 1842 essay is clearly a sketch which is very choppy and does not flow very well. It is pretty short and looks like it was meant to be general notes and some of it was illegible. The 1844 essay is much more polished and clearly shows a general flow of ideas that would be elaborated more by 1859. One question that has been asked is why Darwin took more such a long time to publish his ideas? Though the common responses are that he wanted to get more evidence for his ideas and thought his work would stir up trouble, it seems to be that fear of generating trouble would have been very unlikely. From his personal correspondence, he discussed his ideas with at least 28 people. The more likely reason seems to be that he was very busy with other projects for many years.It is worth noting that according to Richard Dawkins in "Seeing Further: The Story of Science, Discovery, and the Genius of the Royal Society", Edward Blyth in 1935 and Patrick Matthew in 1931 had already published on natural selection well before Darwin.Terms and ideas that he would use later on such as "Natural Selection", "Common Descent", geological distribution arguments, gradual changes through long periods of time, anatomical arguments, embryological arguments, geographical distribution of animals arguments, vestiges, domestication etc; can already be seen in both essays. In fact, some of the wording used in these documents did end up in the 1859 book (a simple example is the ending - with minor changes). One thing I thought was interesting was his references to a "Creator". He seems to have been a believer to some degree in 1844. However, some of the entries he had for "Creator" in these essays were switched to "Nature" in his 1859 book.The collection has an informative introduction by Francis Darwin, Charles Darwin's son. Francis provided not only the introduction, but also helpful footnotes for the two essays. He does an excellent job of dissecting information and comparing parts of both essays with sections in the Origin of Species. The overall purpose of this book was to investigate: "When therefore did the current of his thoughts begin to set in the direction of Evolution?" (Page xi). In the introduction it is noted that Darwin believed in transmutability by 1938 after reading Thomas Malthus work on human populations (An Essay on the Principle of Population (Oxford World's Classics) [1798]). This work influenced him greatly on natural selection since the ideas in Malthus' work were very much the same. Earlier on he had read Charles Lyell's works on uniformitarian geology and the fossil record (Principles of Geology, Volume 1, Principles of Geology, Volume 2, Principles of Geology, Volume 3 [1830-1833]) which were also a major influence in his ideas, especially Volume 2 which discussed gradual evolution and the limits of speciation. Ironically, the works of Malthus and Lyell were later read by Alfred Russel Wallace and they too helped him develop his ideas similar to Darwin's.Since this book will likely attract people who are interested in the history of evolutionary ideas, there are excellent works which would shed more light on the diverse models that existed in the 19th century and below. For instance:Zoological Philosophy, An Exposition with Regard to the Natural History of Animals (Jean Baptiste Lamarck's work)Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation and Other Evolutionary Writings(an evolutionary work from 1844 that argued progressive/gradual evolution ideas similar to Darwin's ideas, among other ideas such as a nebular origin of the universe)Natural Selection and Tropical Nature: Essays on Descriptive and Theoretical Biology (includeas many of Alfred Russel Wallace's works including his 1855 and 1858 papers which establish the similitude between his and Darwin's ideas)From the Greeks to Darwin: An Outline of the Development of the Evolution Idea (Classic Reprint) (good history of the ideas from the ancient period to the 19th century)

This is a complete facsimile edition of the original book, published in 1909 by Francis Darwin. The extensive introduction, all the footnotes and the index are included. This is the one you want to buy - not the cheap but useless partial reproduction!