Darwin's first use of
Just arrived:
Charles DARWIN: ORIGIN OF SPECIES
Edition with first use of the term “survival of the fittest”.
London: John Murray, 1869, 1869. Octavo. Original green cloth, gilt lettered spine, black coated endpapers. Large bookplate on front pastedown. Touch of light mottling to covers, hinges just a little shaken. A very good copy in the original cloth. Folding diagram at p. 132. Fifth edition of “the most important biological book ever written” (Freeman). This copy is in Freeman’s variant c of the binding without the publisher’s terminal advertisements. It is in this one that Darwin used the expression “THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST”, Herbert Spencer’s term, for the first time; it appears first in the heading of Chapter IV.
Freeman 387. 1869 London, John Murray. Fifth edition. Tenth thousand. 8vo in 8s, 190 mm, xxiii + 596 pp. Binding: green cloth; variant a. spine title ORIGIN/OF/SPECIES/ DARWIN/, two gilt rules at top and bottom; variant c. spine title as variant a., but three gilt rules top and bottom.
Current online prices $5,000 – $6,000.
Busy doing our research. Look out for it online at www.elizabethsbookshop.com.au
