DATES OF THE PUBLICATION Of CHARLES DARWIN'S BOOKS
AND OF THE PRINCIPAL EVENTS IN HIS LIFE

Friends, Family And Contemporaries Of Charles Darwin

1809: Charles Darwin born at Shrewsbury, February 12.

1817: "At 8 1/2 years old I went to Mr Case's school." (A day-school at Shrewsbury kept by the Rev G. Case, Minister of the Unitarian Chapel.)

1818: "I was at school at Shrewsbury under a great scholar, Dr Butler; I learnt absolutely nothing, except by amusing myself by reading and experimenting in Chemistry."

1825: "As I was doing no good at school, my father wisely took me away at a rather earlier age than usual, and sent me (Oct. 1825) to Edinburgh University with my brother, where I stayed for two years."

1828: Began residence at Christ's College, Cambridge.

"I went to Cambridge early in the year 1828, and soon became acquainted with Professor Henslow...Nothing could be more simple, cordial and unpretending than the encouragement which he afforded to all young naturalists."

"During the three years which I spent at Cambridge my time was wasted, as far as the academical studies were concerned, as completely as at Edinburgh and at school."

"In order to pass the B.A. Examination, it was...necessary to get up Paley's 'Evidences of Christianity,' and his 'Moral Philosophy'...The careful study of these works, without attempting to learn any part by rote, was the only part of the academical course which...was of the least use to me in the education of my mind."

1831: Passed the examination for the B.A. degree in January and kept the following terms.

"I gained a good place among the oi polloi or crowd of men who do not go in for honours."

"I am very busy,...and see a great deal of Henslow, whom I do not know whether I love or respect most."

Dec. 27. "Sailed from England on our circumnavigation," in H.M.S. "Beagle", a barque of 235 tons carrying 6 guns, under Capt. FitzRoy.

"There is indeed a tide in the affairs of men."

1836: Oct. 4. "Reached Shrewsbury after absence of 5 years and 2 days."

A Letter Containing Remarks on the Moral State of Tahiti, New Zealand, etc. By Captain R. Fitzroy And C. Darwin, Esq. Of H.M.S. 'Beagle.'

"You cannot imagine how gloriously delightful my first visit was at home; it was worth the banishment."

Dec. 13. Went to live at Cambridge (Fitzwilliam Street).

"The only evil I found in Cambridge was its being too pleasant."

1837:

"On my return home (in the 'Beagle') in the autumn of 1836 I immediately began to prepare my journal for publication, and then saw how many facts indicated the common descent of species...In July (1837) I opened my first note-book for facts in relation to the Origin of Species, about which I had long reflected, and never ceased working for the next twenty years...Had been greatly struck from about the month of previous March on character of South American fossils, and species on Galapagos Archipelago. These facts (especially latter), origin of all my views."

"On March 7, 1837 I took lodgings in (36) Great Marlborough Street in London, and remained there for nearly two years, until I was married."

1838:

"In October, that is fifteen months after I had begun my systematic enquiry, I happened to read for amusement 'Malthus on Population,' and being well prepared to appreciate the struggle for existence which everywhere goes on from long-continued observation of the habits of animals and plants, it at once struck me that under these circumstances favourable variations would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable ones to be destroyed. The result of this would be the formation of new species. Here then I had at last got a theory by which to work; but I was so anxious to avoid prejudice, that I determined not for some time to write even the briefest sketch of it."

1839: Married at Maer (Staffordshire) to his first cousin Emma Wedgwood, daughter of Josiah Wedgwood.

"I marvel at my good fortune that she, so infinitely my superior in every single moral quality, consented to be my wife. She has been my wise adviser and cheerful comforter throughout life, which without her would have been during a very long period a miserable one from ill-health. She has earned the love of every soul near her" (Autobiography).

Dec. 31. "Entered 12 Upper Gower street" (now 110 Gower street, London). "There never was so good a house for me, and I devoutly trust you (his future wife) will approve of it equally. The little garden is worth its weight in gold."

Published "Journal and Researches", being Vol. III. of the "Narrative of the Surveying Voyage of H.M.S. 'Adventure' and 'Beagle'"...

Publication of the "Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. 'Beagle'", Part II., "Mammalia", by G.R. Waterhouse, with a "Notice of their habits and ranges", by Charles Darwin.

1840: Contributed Geological Introduction to Part I. ("Fossil Mammalia") of the "Zoology of the Voyage of H.M.S. 'Beagle'" by Richard Owen.

1842:

"In June 1842 I first allowed myself the satisfaction of writing a very brief abstract of my (species) theory in pencil in 35 pages; and this was enlarged during the summer of 1844 into one of 230 pages, which I had fairly copied out and still (1876) possess." (The first draft of "The Origin of Species", edited by Mr Francis Darwin, will be published this year (1909) by the Syndics of the Cambridge University Press.)

Sept. 14. Settled at the village of Down in Kent.

"I think I was never in a more perfectly quiet country."

Publication of "The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs"; being Part I. of the "Geology of the Voyage of the Beagle".

1844: Publication of "Geological Observations on the Volcanic Islands visited during the Voyage of H.M.S. 'Beagle'"; being Part II. of the "Geology of the Voyage of the 'Beagle'".

"I think much more highly of my book on Volcanic Islands since Mr Judd, by far the best judge on the subject in England, has, as I hear, learnt much from it." (Autobiography, 1876.)

1845: Publication of the "Journal of Researches" as a separate book.

1846: Publication of "Geological Observations on South America"; being Part III. of the "Geology of the Voyage of the 'Beagle'".

1851: Publication of a "Monograph of the Fossil Lepadidae" and of a "Monograph of the sub-class Cirripedia".

"I fear the study of the Cirripedia will ever remain 'wholly unapplied,' and yet I feel that such study is better than castle-building."

1854: Publication of Monographs of the Balanidae and Verrucidae.

"I worked steadily on this subject for...eight years, and ultimately published two thick volumes, describing all the known living species, and two thin quartos on the extinct species...My work was of considerable use to me, when I had to discuss in the "Origin of Species" the principles of a natural classification. Nevertheless, I doubt whether the work was worth the consumption of so much time."

"From September 1854 I devoted my whole time to arranging my huge pile of notes, to observing, and to experimenting in relation to the transmutation of species."

1856:

"Early in 1856 Lyell advised me to write out my views pretty fully, and I began at once to do so on a scale three or four times as extensive as that which was afterwards followed in my 'Origin of Species'."

1858: Joint paper by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace "On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection," communicated to the Linnean Society by Sir Charles Lyell and Sir Joseph Hooker.

"I was at first very unwilling to consent (to the communication of his MS. to the Society) as I thought Mr Wallace might consider my doing so unjustifiable, for I did not then know how generous and noble was his disposition."

"July 20 to Aug. 12 at Sandown (Isle of Wight) began abstract of Species book."

1859: Nov. 24. Publication of "The Origin of Species" (1250 copies).

"Oh, good heavens, the relief to my head and body to banish the whole subject from my mind!...But, alas, how frequent, how almost universal it is in an author to persuade himself of the truth of his own dogmas. My only hope is that I certainly see many difficulties of gigantic stature."

1860: Publication of the second edition of the "Origin" (3000 copies).

Publication of a "Naturalist's Voyage".

1861: Publication of the third edition of the "Origin" (2000 copies).

"I am going to write a little book...on Orchids, and to-day I hate them worse than everything."

1862: Publication of the book "On the various contrivances by which Orchids are fertilised by Insects".

1865: Read paper before the Linnean Society "On the Movements and Habits of Climbing plants". (Published as a book in 1875.)

1866: Publication of the fourth edition of the "Origin" (1250 copies).

1868: Publication of the "Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication".

"I have sent the MS. of my big book, and horridly, disgustingly big it will be, to the printers."

"About my book, I will give you (Sir Joseph Hooker) a bit of advice. Skip the whole of Vol. I, except the last chapter, (and that need only be skimmed), and skip largely in the 2nd volume; and then you will say it is a very good book."

"Towards the end of the work I give my well-abused hypothesis of Pangenesis. An unverified hypothesis is of little or no value; but if anyone should hereafter be led to make observations by which some such hypothesis could be established, I shall have done good service, as an astonishing number of isolated facts can be thus connected together and rendered intelligible."

1869: Publication of the fifth edition of the "Origin".

1871: Publication of "The Descent of Man".

"Although in the 'Origin of Species' the derivation of any particular species is never discussed, yet I thought it best, in order that no honourable man should accuse me of concealing my views, to add that by the work 'light would be thrown on the origin of man and his history'."

1872: Publication of the sixth edition of the "Origin".

Publication of "The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals".

1874: Publication of the second edition of "The Descent of Man".

Publication of the second edition of "The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs".

"The new edition of the "Descent" has turned out an awful job. It took me ten days merely to glance over letters and reviews with criticisms and new facts. It is a devil of a job."

1875: Publication of "Insectivorous Plants".

Publication of the second edition of "Variation in Animals and Plants".

Publication of "The Movements and Habits of Climbing Plants" as a separate book.

"I begin to think that every one who publishes a book is a fool."

1876: Wrote Autobiographical Sketch ("Life and Letters", Vol. I., Chap II.).

Publication of "The Effects of Cross and Self fertilisation".

Publication of the second edition of "Observations on Volcanic Islands".

"I now (1881) believe, however,...that I ought to have insisted more strongly than I did on the many adaptations for self-fertilisation."

1877:

Publication of "The Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the same species".

Publication of the second edition of the Orchid book.

"I do not suppose that I shall publish any more books...I cannot endure being idle, but heaven knows whether I am capable of any more good work."

1878: Publication of the second edition of "The Effects of Cross and Self fertilisation".

1879: Publication of an English translation of Ernst Krause's "Erasmus Darwin", with a notice by Charles Darwin. "I am EXTREMELY glad that you approve of the little 'Life' of our Grandfather, for I have been repenting that I ever undertook it, as the work was quite beyond my tether." (To Mr Francis Galton, Nov. 14, 1879.)

1880: Publication of "The Power of Movement in Plants".

Publication of the second edition of "The Different Forms of Flowers".

"It has always pleased me to exalt plants in the scale of organised beings."

1881: Wrote a continuation of the Autobiography.

Publication of "The Formation of Vegetable Mould, through the Action of Worms".

"It is the completion of a short paper read before the Geological Society more than forty years ago, and has revived old geological thoughts...As far as I can judge it will be a curious little book."

1882: Charles Darwin died at Down, April 19, and was buried in Westminster Abbey, April 26, in the north aisle of the Nave a few feet from the grave of Sir Isaac Newton.

"As for myself, I believe that I have acted rightly in steadily following and devoting my life to Science. I feel no remorse from having committed any great sin, but have often and often regretted that I have not done more direct good to my fellow creatures."

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The quotations in the above Epitome are taken from the Autobiography and published Letters:--

"The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin", including an Autobiographical Chapter. Edited by his son, Francis Darwin, 3 Vols., London, 1887.

"Charles Darwin": His life told in an Autobiographical Chapter, and in a selected series of his published Letters. Edited by his son, Francis Darwin, London, 1902.

"More Letters of Charles Darwin". A record of his work in a series of hitherto unpublished Letters. Edited by Francis Darwin and A.C. Seward, 2 Vols., London, 1903.

Friends, Family And Contemporaries Of Charles Darwin
Supporters And Dissenters

DARWIN AND MODERN SCIENCE DARWIN'S PREDECESSORS | CHARLES DARWIN AS AN ANTHROPOLOGIST DARWINISM AND SOCIOLOGY | INFLUENCE OF DARWIN UPON RELIGIOUS THOUGHT THE INFLUENCE OF DARWINISM ON THE STUDY OF RELIGIONS AT THE DEATHBED OF DARWINISM
Jean Louis Agassiz. 1807-1873 Swiss naturalist and geologist	Charles Babbage. 1791-1871 British pioneer of computing.
Joachim Barrande. 1799-1883 Austrian geologist and palaeontologist	Henry Walter Bates. 1825-1892 The Naturalist on the River Amazons
William Bateson. 1861-1926 British biologist, famous for his biological investigations	Rear-Admiral Francis Beaufort. 1774-1857 Hydrographer and creator of the Beaufort scale for indicating wind force.
Sir Charles Bell. 1774-1842 Scottish anatomist who mapped the anatomy of the brain and nervous system.	Henry Bence-Jones. 1813-1873 English physician and chemist and a recognized authority on diseases of the stomach and kidneys.
Claude Bernard. 1813-1878 French physiologist who established the existence of vaso-motor nerves.	Charles Bonnet. 1720-1793 Swiss naturalist and philosophical writer,
Charles Bradlaugh. 1833-1891 A Sketch Of His Life	Giovanni Brocchi. 1772-1826 Italian mineralogist and geologist,
William John Broderip. 1789-1859 English naturalist whose writings did much to further the study of zoology in England.	Robert Brown. 1773-1858 British botanist and contemporary to Joseph Hume and James Mill.
George Busk. 1807-1886 British surgeon, zoologist and palaeontologist	Samuel Butler. 1806-1886 Evolution, Old and New
Richard Carlile. 1790-1843 English freethinker who helped in the establishment of universal suffrage and freedom of the press in the United Kingdom.	Robert Chambers. 1802-1871 Scottish author and publisher who wrote "Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation" which proposed a natural theory of cosmic and biological evolution, tying together numerous speculative scientific theories
John Chapman	Syms Covington
Henry Crampton. 1875-1956 The Doctrine of Evolution	Emma Darwin, nee Wedgwood A Century Of Family Letters
Erasmus Darwin. 1731-1802 Zoonomia, or the Laws of Organic Life	Eberhard Dennert. 1861-1942 At The Deathbed Of Darwinism
Anton Felix Dohrn. 1840-1909	Hans Adolf Eduard Driesch. 1867-1941
Duke of Argyll	John Edmonstone
Jean Baptiste Elie de Beaumont. 1798-1884	Julius Wilhelm Ewald. 1811-1891
Hugh Falconer. 1808-1865 British palaeontologist and botanist	Captain Robert FitzRoy. 1805-1865 Remarks on New Zealand
James David Forbes 1809-1868 Scottish physicist best known for his researches on heat and on glaciers.	William Darwin Fox. 1805-1880 English clergyman, naturalist, and a 2nd cousin of Charles Darwin.
Sir Francis Galton. 1822-1911 English anthropologist, grandson of Erasmus Darwin and cousin of Charles Darwin. Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development	Karl Gegenbauer. 1826-1903 German anatomist and Professor of Anatomy at Heidelberg who taught Haeckel for three years.
Etienne Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire. 1772-1844 French naturalist whose conviction was that the same forms had not been perpetuated since the origin of all things.	John Gould. 1804-1881 English ornithologist whose identification of the birds nicknamed "Darwin's finches" was pivotal in the inception of Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection,
Robert Grant	Louis Pierre Gratiolet. 1815-1865
Asa Gray. 1810-1888)	Ernst Haeckel. 1834-1919
Heer Oswald. 1809-1883	Revered William Herbert. 1778-1847
Hermann von Helmholtz. 1821-1894	Revered John Henslow. 1796-1861
Sir John Herschel. 1792-1871	Oskar Hertwig. 1849-1922
Joseph Dalton Hooker. 1817-1911	Thomas Huxley. 1825-1895 A Sketch of His Life and Work
Revered Leonard Jenyns	Lord William Kelvin. 1824-1907
Albert von Kolliker. 1817-1905	Jean-Baptiste-Pierre Lamarck. 1744-1829 Lamarck, the Founder of Evolution.
Karl Georg Leuckart.1822-1898	Franz Leydig. 1821-1908
Charles Lyell	Sir John Lubbock. 1834-1913
Joseph McCabe. 1867–1955 The Story of Evolution	The Joseph McCabe Index
Revered Thomas Malthus. 1766-1834	Johann Meckel. 1781-1833
Gregor Mendel. 1822-1884	Henri Milne-Edwards. 1800-1885
George Mivart	Thomas Morgan. 1866-1945
Fritz Muller. 1822-1897	Sir Roderick Murchison. 1792-1871
Sir John Murray. 1841-1914 British geographer and naturalist	Carl Nageli. 1817-1891 Swiss botanist who discovered what would later become known as chromosomes
Alexander von Nordmann. 1803-1866	Lorenz Oken. 1779-1851
Fanny Owen. 1807-1887. An early girlfriend and one of his sisters best friends. Mentioned in Emma Darwin's letters	Richard Owen
William Paley. 1743-1805	George Peacock
Felix Pouchet. 1800-1872	Nathaniel Pringsheim. 1823-1894
Jean de Quatrefages de Breau. 1810-1892	Karl Reichert. 1811-83
George Romanes. 1848-1894	Wilhelm Roux. 1850-1924
Ludwig Rutimeyer. 1825-1895	Etienne Saint Simon. 1802-1868
Friedrich von Schelling. 1775-1854 German philosopher and the acknowledged leader of the Romantic school	Adam Sedgwick. 1785-1873 English geologist, one of the founders of modern geology who proposed the Devonian and the Cambrian periods of the geological timescale.
Herbert Spencer. 1820-1903 Developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world,	William Spottiswoode. 1825-1883 English mathematician and physicist
Sir Charles Thomson. 1830-1882 Scottish naturalist who gained remarkable results for hydrography as well as zoology, in association with the practical needs of ocean telegraphy	John Tyndall. 1820-1893 British natural philosopher draftsman, surveyor, physics professor, mathematician, geologist and atmospheric scientist.
Karl Vogt. 1817-1895 German naturalist and geologist	Alfred Russel Wallace. 1823-1913 Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection
Benjamin Walsh. 1808-1869 American pioneer entomologist and Proponent of Darwinian Theory.	George Waterhouse. 1810-1888 English naturalist entrusted by Darwin with the study of the mammals and beetles collected on the voyage of the Beagle.
August Weismann. 1834-1914	Bishop Sam Wilberforce. 1805-1873
William A. Williams 1854-1937 The Evolution of Man Scientifically Disproved, In 50 Arguments