ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES BY MEANS OF NATURAL SELECTION, OR THE PRESERVATION OF FAVOURED RACES IN THE STRUGGLE FOR LIFE
New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1867. Hardcover. A new edition revised and augmented by the author. Octavo: 8, [viii], 9-440, [2, ads] pp. with a folding diagram. The publisher's pebbled green cloth binding has been rebacked with the original backstrip laid down and some restoration to the corners and tips. Lacking the front flyleaf, which appears to have been used to patch the front pastedown. A presentable example of this early American edition.
Arguably the most significant work of science in the Western canon, The Origin of Species first appeared in 1859, positing a theory of evolution in which living organisms change through a series of random permutations, which are 'naturally selected' insofar as they are adapted to their environment. Item #78391
Price: $2,000.00