Correspondence of Charles Darwin

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Charles Darwin in 1854
Charles Darwin in 1854

The British naturalist Charles Darwin had correspondence with numerous other scientific luminaries of his age and members of his family. These have provided historians with many insights about Darwin's work, including but not limited to: the development of his scientific ideas; his opinions on issues he did not publish about (his letters to Asa Gray, for example, show his changing opinions on the American Civil War); matters about his character and health; the ways in which he relied upon correspodence for much of his investigations into natural history; and the ways in which he marshalled scientific support for his ideas amongst friends and colleagues.

Analysis and publication of Darwin's correspondence has been a main focus of the so-called Darwin Industry of historical scholarship.

Contents

[edit] History

It was Darwin's custom to file all letters received, and when his slender stock of files ("spits" as he called them) was exhausted, he would burn the letters of several years, in order that he might make use of the liberated "spits." This process, carried on for years, destroyed nearly all letters received before 1862.

In 1887, five years after Darwin's death, Darwin's son Francis Darwin published The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin in 2 volumes, to accompany the publication of The Autobiography of Charles Darwin. This was later followed by two volumes of More Letters of Charles Darwin published in 1902.

In 1974 the Darwin Correspondence Project was founded at Cambridge University by Frederick Burkhardt, with the aid of Sydney Smith. Cambridge University owns 9,000 letters and has obtained copies of another 6,000 held in private collections. New letters are being discovered at around 60 per year and photocopies of new finds should be sent to the project, who will eventually publish them online.

The historian of science Janet Browne has argued in her recent biography of Darwin that his ability to correspond daily played a crucial role in the development of his theory and his ability to garner support for it from colleagues.

[edit] List of notable persons with whom Darwin corresponded

Entries marked with asterisks denote persons for which 100 letters or more have been located.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

[edit] References

[edit] Original published letters

[edit] Darwin Correspondence Project publications

Charles Darwin's Letters: A Selection, 1825–1859 ISBN 0-521-56677-0 has also been published

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Darwin's letters archived on wen" BBC