Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

Lot 2317

DARWIN, CHARLES.

11 June 2008, 13:00 EDT
New York

Sold for US$19,200 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Books & Manuscripts specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

DARWIN, CHARLES.

Autograph Letter Signed (“C.L. Darwin”), 1 p, 8vo (conjoining blank), Down, Beckenham, January 21, 1871, to St. George Mivart, concerning the exchange of their books, (Mivart’s On the Genesis of Species and Darwin’s The Descent of Man), with Autograph Envelope, envelope a little soiled, else fine, matted and framed with portrait to 19 by 17 inches.

Excellent letter written by Darwin at the moment he received the book of his most important contemporary critic, St. George Mivart. Mivart and Darwin had been friendly colleagues, but their relationship ended with Mivart's publication of the book which Darwin has just received, On the Genesis of Species. Mivart not only objected on scientific grounds to Darwin's theories but also argued that Darwin was undermining society’s moral foundation. Darwin answered Mivart's objections at length in the sixth edition of Origin of Species.
In part: “It will take me some time to read [your book], as I can read but little of anything which requires much thought. If I had known that your book was published I would not of course have directed vol.I of my book to be sent to you; nor do I suppose you will care much about it. It will probably excite some indignation. I always console myself with thinking that I have done my best….
See illustration.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

A Presentation Copy of Kennedy's First Book to Spencer Tracy. Kennedy, John F. 1917-1963. Why England Slept. New York: Wilfred Funk, Inc., 1940.

Signed to Spencer Tracy 1952 Hemingway, Ernest. 1899-1961. The Old Man and the Sea, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1952.

CORNELIUS, MATTHEWS, editor. 1817-1889. The Enchanted Moccasins and Other Legends of the American Indians.

CALEPINO, AMBROGIO. 1435-1511. [Dictionarium.] Calepinus Ad librum. Mos est putidas.... Venice: Peter Liechtenstein, January 3, 1509.

HEARN, LAFCADIO. 1850-1904. [Japanese Fairy Tales.] Philadelphia: Macrae-Smith, [But Tokyo: T. Hasegawa,] [c.1931].

HEMINGWAY, ERNEST. 1899-1961. PUTNAM, SAMUEL, translator. Kiki's Memoirs. Paris: Sign of the Black Manikin, 1930.