A very fine and rare assemblage of volumes by Charles Darwin. They include:
1. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. Second Edition [Fifth Thousand]. London. John Murray. 1860.
This appeared the same year as the first edition and aside from the addition of "Fifth Thousand" on the title, they are identical. A similar half leather edition on the market elsewhere for more than we are asking for the grouping.
2. The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. In Two Volumes. With Illustrations. Second Edition. London. John Murray. 1871.
Issued the same year as the first edition with only minor textual alterations, here for the very first time, one year earlier than in the Sixth Edition of Origin of Species, Darwin would use the term "evolution," which would come to define his summary of the process of species malleability through natural selection.
3. The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, Including an Autobiographical Chapter. Three Volumes Bound in Two. First Edition. London. John Murray. 1887.
The primary and authoritative source, and a gem at that.
All in period half leather bindings; Origin being lightly rubbed as shown in half calf, Descent of Man being lightly rubbed as shown in half morocco, and the Life and Letters in very good, smart half calf.
