Essay Reviews - Charles Darwin: Imprimatur!

Abstract

Charles Darwin’s Beagle diary , ed. Richard Darwin Keynes. Cambridge University Press, 1988. Pp. xxix + 464. £35. ISBN 0-521-23503-0. Charles Darwin’s notebooks, 1836-1844 ed. Paul H. Barrett et al . Cambridge University Press, 1987. Pp. viii + 747. £65. ISBN 0-521-35055-7. A calendar of the correspondence of Charles Darwin, 1821-1882 , ed. Frederick Burkhardt & Sydney Smith. New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1985. Pp. 690. £37.50. ISBN 0-521-35055-7. The correspondence of Charles Darwin , ed. Frederick Burkhardt & Sydney Smith. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: Volume 1 (1821-1836), 1985. Pp. xxix + 702. £32.50. ISBN 0-521-25587-2; Volume 2 (1837-1843), 1986. Pp. xxv + 603. £32.50. ISBN 0-521-25588-0; Volume 3 (1844-1846), 1987. Pp. xxxii + 523. £32.50. ISBN 0-521-25589-9. Darwin scholars have long had access to a substantial body of his correspondence in print, thanks to the three-volume Life and letters and the two-volume More letters edited by his son Francis. Letters between Darwin and John Henslow were published by Nora Barlow, who also edited the Beagle notebooks and diary. A more intense interest in the discovery and publication of the theory of natural selection began in the 1960s, following the consolidation of the modern synthesis with genetics. In the early decades of this century Darwinism still had substantial rivals as a scientific theory. Darwin himself was perceived as the man who had ‘started the ball rolling’ in the establishment of scientific evolutionism, but not necessarily as the founder of the dominant theory of the evolutionary mechanism. But once the modern synthesis of Darwinism and genetics was firmly established, its proponents began to see the original creation of the selection theory as the main event in the history of evolutionism. Sir Gavin De Beer and Sydney Smith began a renewed effort to collect and publish Darwin’s private papers. Historians of science were encouraged to investigate the treasure-trove that began to accumulate at Cambridge University Library. The books reviewed here represent the latest thrust toward the publication of Darwin material, a thrust that may well end with virtually everything that survives being available on the library shelf.