charles_darwin

The Life of Charles Darwin
evolution and the best-known exposition of that theory, The Origin
of Species, that it is tempting to forget about Darwin after 1859. He
did write The Descent of Man, but that book seems like a sequel to
The Origin of Species: a sequel is easily overlooked.
The main reason Darwin’s life is ignored after 1859 is that he
was not personally involved in the controversy surrounding the ideas
in The Origin of Species. Because he was the author, Darwin did not
write any reviews of the book. He did not write letters to the prominent
newspapers and journals to defend the book. He did not attend
any of the meetings of scientific societies at which his ideas were discussed.
The names associated with the furor after the publication of
The Origin of Species are men such as Thomas Huxley, nicknamed
‘‘Darwin’s bulldog’’ because he defended Darwin’s ideas so aggressively;
Joseph Hooker; Charles Lyell; Richard Owen (1804–1892);
Asa Gray; Louis Agassiz (1807–1883); and Ernst Haeckel (1834–
1919). Darwin seemed to disappear.
In fact, it is more accurate to think of Darwin’s life, his life in
the public eye, as beginning in 1859. He was already a famous scientist
but The Origin of Species vaulted Darwin to the level of most important
naturalists and scientists. Darwin was the man responsible
for a ‘‘big’’ theory in natural history. He was a well-known figure
worldwide with the extra burden this status entailed. This meant that
he was quoted, consulted, argued with, and even demonized: Darwin’s
life was no longer private. He was a frequent subject for
nineteenth-century cartoonists, for example. In 1864, Darwin
received the Copley Medal of the Royal Society, the highest award
from the most prestigious scientific society. To nineteenth-century
society in Europe and the United States, Darwin and his ideas were
very much at the forefront. The socialist thinker Karl Marx (1818–
1883) considered Darwin one of his heroes, to Darwin’s bemusement,
and sent him an autographed copy of Das Kapital in 1873.
Marx was one of many admirers.
Darwin’s continuing research kept him in the limelight. Excluding
The Descent of Man, Darwin wrote eight major scientific books:
five on botany; one on zoology; one on domesticated species combining
zoology and botany; and one that combined zoology, psychology,
sociology, and anthropology. Between the publication of The
Origin of Species and The Descent of Man Darwin had three other
books published: On the Various Contrivances by which British and
Foreign Orchids are Fertilised by Insects, and on the Good Effects of
Intercrossing (1862), On the Movement and Habits of Climbing Plants
(1865), and the two-volume The Variation of Animals and Plants
under Domestication (1868). These books were so popular that
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