charles_darwin

36
CHARLES DARWIN AND THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
should publish a major work on evolution by natural selection. Wallace
was happy to let Darwin take the credit; in later years, Wallace
was one of staunchest defenders of Darwin’s theory of evolution.
David Knight, a historian of science, suggests that Wallace was so
amenable because ‘‘he was a modest man, and conscious of his social
and scientific position ... [who] recognized that Darwin had got
there first.’’ 55 Perhaps neither the Linnean fellows nor Wallace recognized
at the time the significance of the ideas in the joint paper. 56
Others did. Lyell and Hooker urged Darwin to write a shorter
version of his large manuscript on natural selection. The publisher
John Murray offered to publish the forthcoming summary before seeing
any of the manuscript. Murray had published Lyell’s Principles of
Geology, a best-selling book explaining the geological theory of uniformitarianism:
Lyell’s recommendation smoothed the path for
Darwin.
On 20 July 1858, Darwin began to write the book that would
become The Origin of Species. Spurred by the knowledge that he had
no choice about whether to publish his theory, Darwin continued
writing until he finished the manuscript on 10 May 1859. (Wallace
was still in the Malaysian Archipelago, but prudence suggested that
Darwin could not expect Wallace to be completely silent about his
own research.) Darwin finished editing the proofs of the manuscript
on 1 October: thirteen months and ten days of writing. Including his
notebooks of the 1830s, his two essays of the 1840s, and his manuscript
on natural selection, The Origin of Species was Darwin’s fourth
major attempt at explaining his theory about the transmutation of
species. The Origin of Species was also the most successful piece of
writing Darwin ever did.
The rumor that Darwin was writing a major book about the
transmutation of the species spread rapidly through Britain, the rest
of Europe, and the United States between July 1858 and November
1859. Scientists and others interested in the idea of evolution eagerly
anticipated the book’s appearance. All 1,250 copies of The Origin of
Species had buyers by the first day of publication, 24 November. On
the same day, John Murray wrote to Darwin asking him to prepare a
second edition of the book. Whatever controversy The Origin of
Species might precipitate, it was destined to be a best seller.
Life after The Origin of Species
Darwin’s life did not ‘‘end’’ after the publication of The Origin
of Species. His name is so inextricably linked with the theory of