The Variation Of Animals And Plants Under Domestication
London: John Murray, 1868. First Edition, second issue. leather_bound. 411, 486 pages. 22 x 14 cm. 43 black and white illustrations. Comprehensive Index. Bound without the advertisements. The book's slow progress towards publication was due not only to its size but the author's ill health. "About half of the eight years that elapsed between its commencement and completion were spent on it. The book did not escape adverse criticism: it was said, for instance, that the public had been patiently waiting for Mr. Darwin's justificatives, and that after eight years of expectation all they got was a mass of detail about pigeons, rabbits and silkworms. The work contains the first appearance of the phrase 'survival of the fittest' in any of Darwin's works (p. 6 of 1st volume). Single erratum in Volume I. FREEMAN, 878. NORMAN. 597. Backstrip decorated with gilt florets and gilt lettered spine labels, lacking Vol. II label. Full tree calf, gilt decorated borders, marbled endpapers and edges. Very good. 2 Vols. Item #24571
Price: $1,250.00