The first volume of the Life and Letters of Charles Darwin is a biographical collection edited by his son Francis. It brings together Darwin's autobiographical recollections and selected correspondence, arranged to show his character and the slow development of his scientific work. It offers a warm, intimate view of the man behind the theories.
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Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF CHARLES DARWIN Volume I By Charles Darwin Including An Autobiographical Chapter Edited By His Son Francis Darwin 1portrait (137K)
VOLUME I PREFACE In choosing letters for publication I have been largely guided by the wish to illustrate my father's personal character. But his life was so essentially one of work, that a history of the man could not be written without following closely the career of the author. Thus it comes about that the chief part of the book falls into chapters whose titles correspond to the names of his books. In arranging the letters I have adhered as far as possible to chronological sequence, but the character and variety of his researches make a strictly chronological order an impossibility. It was his habit to work more or less simultaneously at several subjects. Experimental work was often carried on as a refreshment or variety, while books entailing reasoning and the marshalling of large bodies of facts were being written. Moreover, many of his researches were allowed to drop, and only resumed after an interval of years. Thus a rigidly chronological series of letters would present a patchwork of subjects, each of which would be difficult to follow. The Table of Contents will show in what way I have attempted to avoid this result.
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