The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection: A Complete Variorum Edition

Abstract

The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection A Complete Variorum Edition Ronald Aylmer Fisher (Edited by Henry Bennett) Oxford University Press, 1999 318pp; $45.00 One of the more influential monographs in the history of evolutionary biology is available in a newly revised edition four decades after its last printing. Earlier this year Oxford University Press published the definitive version of Sir Ronald Fisher's The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection. As 'a complete variorum edition', the text of this monumental classic in population genetics incorporates changes and corrections from Fisher's amended personal copy of the first edition. It also contains a new forward by Henry Bennett, Professor of Genetics at the University of Adelaide, South Australia, and editor of Fisher's collected papers. In three appendices, Bennett lists the changes in the 1958 edition, includes a selection of editorial notes from exchanges in correspondence between Fisher and distinguished scholars that highlight points of agreement and dissent over particular points in the text, and presents an annotated list of related papers published by Fisher. Originally published in 1930, Fisher's landmark monograph put forth a major theoretical interpretation of how natural selection via heredity affects variation. In the new forward, Bennett describes Fisher's book in the historical context of early 20" century scholarship on Darwinian evolutionary studies. The genetical theory of natural selection is celebrated as the first major work to provide a synthesis of Darwinian selection and Mendelian genetics. Its publication in 1930 marked a turning point in the development of evolutionary thought, contributing fundamentally to the renaissance of Darwinism following a long period of neglect. It is a work remarkable for what it reveals of Fisher's creative genius and his insight into many of the problems facing evolutionary biologists today. Bennett recounts a fascinating revelation that Joan Fisher Box (Fisher's daughter) describes in her 1978 biography R A. Fisher: The Life of a Scientist. Fisher dictated the original manuscript to his wife over a nine-month period, between October 1928 and June 1929 and, except for two mathematical sections in different chapters, the text appeared as initially dictated with little if any changes to the hand-written draft of the original manuscript. Bennett reminds the reader of Fisher's genius most of this dictation exemplifies the level of Fisher's ability to formulate such a detailed quantitative analysis from memory. Most of the text was composed during evenings given Fisher's daytime supervisory work in the Statistics Department at Rothamsted Experimental Station. Fisher sent the completed text, chapter by chapter, to his good friend Leonard Darwin, the son of Charles Darwin and, like Fisher, an enthusiastic proponent of eugenics. Bennett, who edited a collection of Fisher and Darwin's correspondence from this period in an earlier monograph, notes that Fisher dedicated the book to Major Leonard Darwin. This dedication is "in gratitude for the encouragement, given to the author, during the last fifteen years, by discussing many of the problems dealt with in this book". The variorum edition reprints the complete text of the first edition, published by Oxford University's Clarendon Press in 1930. One third of the 1500 copies printed were sold within the first year of its publication and sales of the book tapered off until the last copies were sold in 1947. In the mid-1950s, Dover publications approached Fisher about reprinting his book and in fact published what Dover promoted as an `unabridged, second revised edition'. As Bennett explains, the 1958 Dover edition contains some corrections that Fisher recorded over the years in his own copy of the original edition. Portions of the original text were omitted in this revision, namely two detailed sections from different chapters, and the second edition failed to include several paragraphs that Fisher submitted for Dover's 'revised' version. …