CORRESPONDENCE OF CHARLES DARWIN

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.

Contents

History

List of notable persons with whom Darwin corresponded

References

Original published letters

Darwin Correspondence Project publications

Reference

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.

List of notable persons with whom Darwin corresponded

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

★ Louis Agassiz

★ Alexander Bain

★ Henry Walter Bates

★ George Bentham

★ Heinrich Georg Bronn

★ Alphonse Louis Pierre Pyrame de Candolle

★ William Benjamin Carpenter

★ Thomas Davidson

★ Anton Dohrn

★ Franciscus Donders

★ Hugh Falconer

★ Frederic William Farrar

★ Thomas Farrer, 1st Baron Farrer

★ John Fiske

★ Robert FitzRoy

★ Auguste-Henri Forel

★ Francis Galton
★

★ Jean Albert Gaudry

★ James Geikie

★ Joseph Henry Gilbert

★ Asa Gray
★

★ William Robert Grove

★ Julius von Haast

★ Ernst Haeckel

★ John Stevens Henslow
★

★ Joseph Dalton Hooker
★

★ Thomas Henry Huxley
★

★ Leonard Jenyns

★ Charles Kingsley

★ Ray Lankester

★ John Lubbock
★

★ Charles Lyell
★

★ Maxwell T. Masters

★ Edward S. Morse

★ Henry Nottidge Moseley

★ Fritz Müller

★ John Murray

★ Melchior Neumayr

★ Alfred Newton

★ Richard Owen

★ Jean Louis Armand de Quatrefages de Bréau

★ George Croom Robertson

★ George Romanes

★ Adam Sedgwick

★ Herbert Spencer

★ Bartholomew Sulivan

★ Alfred Russel Wallace
★

★ August Weismann

★ William Whewell

★ Chauncey Wright

References

★ Browne, Janet, ''Charles Darwin: Voyaging''. Princeton, 1995.

★ Browne, Janet, ''Charles Darwin: The Power of Place''. Princeton, 2002.

Original published letters

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★ Letters on Geology The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

★ Life and Letters and Autobiography The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

★ More Letters The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

★ Letter on Vivisection The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online

Darwin Correspondence Project publications

★ Darwin Correspondence Project Home Page, University Library, Cambridge. (Accessed 2007-01-09)

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★ Darwin Correspondence Online Database – The complete texts of letters from 1837 to 1859 are now available online, together with details of all known letters including brief summaries (Accessed 2007-01-09) ^[1]

★ Volume 1: 1821-1836 (pub 1985) ISBN 0-521-25587-2

★ Volume 2: 1837-1843 (pub 1986) ISBN 0-521-25588-0

★ Volume 3: 1844-1846 (pub 1987) ISBN 0-521-25589-9

★ Volume 4: 1847-1850 (pub 1988) ISBN 0-521-25590-2

★ Volume 5: 1851-1855 (pub 1989) ISBN 0-521-25591-0

★ Volume 6: 1856-1857 (pub 1990) ISBN 0-521-25586-4

★ Volume 7: 1858-1859 (pub 1991) ISBN 0-521-38564-4

★ Volume 8: 1860 (pub 1993) ISBN 0-521-44241-9

★ Volume 9: 1861 (pub 1994) ISBN 0-521-45156-6

★ Volume 10: 1862 (pub 1997) ISBN 0-521-59032-9

★ Volume 11: 1863 (pub 1999) ISBN 0-521-59033-7

★ Volume 12: 1864 (pub 2001) ISBN 0-521-59034-5

★ Volume 13: 1865 (pub 2003) ISBN 0-521-82413-3

★ Volume 14: 1866 (pub 2004) ISBN 0-521-84459-2

★ Volume 15: 1867 (pub 2005) ISBN 0-521-85931-X

★ Further volumes are anticipated (to about 30 volumes in total)
''Charles Darwin's Letters: A Selection, 1825–1859'' ISBN 0-521-56677-0 has also been published

Reference

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