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On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
Charles Darwin
1859
On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life has profoundly influenced nearly every field of modern scientific and philosophical study.
At age 22, Charles Darwin (1809-82) joined the HMS Beagle as a naturalist, sailing to the Southern Pacific and to South America and Australia between 1831 and 1838. On returning to England, he developed his theory of evolution by natural selection.
When On the Origin of Species first appeared in London in 1859, published by John Murray, all 1250 copies sold out in a day. It caused widespread controversy amongst the scientific and religious communities for its thesis that humans and animals had evolved from a common ancestry.
The State Library of Victoria's copy, purchased in 1935, is one of the 1250 produced in the first print run.
