Title: THE DESCENT OF MAN, AND SELECTION IN RELATION TO SEX
Author: Charles Darwin
Publisher: D. Appleton & Company
City: New YorkYear: 1871 (First American Edition)Binding Style: Hardcover; 2 Volumes
Illustrated: Yes
Book Details + Condition: Scarce, complete first (American) edition from 1871, in 2 volumes. Darwin's THE DESCENT OF MAN, AND SELECTION IN RELATION TO SEX. The
books are bound in the publisher's original red cloth with black decoration and gilt titles on spine. Octavo. Shelfwear present on both volumes, including bumped corners and wear to spine edges. Contents very good, clean and tight. (Original) paper is not of a high quality. Previous owner's name stamped on the top of both title pages. For Volume 1: Small repaired tear on the first endpaper and chipping, and two repaired tears along the fore-edge borders of the next two pages. Chip missing on the fore-edge of page 99. Small bottom corner chip missing from pages 371 to 409. Volume 2 is crisp, clean and free of chipping or tears. Please see pictures for more condition detail. First
published in the UK earlier that year, it was in this work that the word
"evolution" appears for the first time, preceding its appearance in
the sixth edition of The Origin of Species in 1872. In The Descent of Man, Darwin applies evolutionary
theory to human evolution, and details his theory of sexual selection. It remains a book of enduring scientific importance.
"The book, in its first edition, contains
two parts, the descent of man itself, and selection in relation to sex. The
word 'evolution' occurs, for the first time in any of Darwin's works, on page 2
of the first volume of the first edition, that is to say before its appearance
in the sixth edition of The Origin of Species in the following year. The last
chapter is about sexual selection in relation to man, and it ends with the
famous peroration about man's lowly origin, the wording of which differs
slightly in the first edition from that which is usually quoted" (Freeman,
p. 129). Freeman 941.
