DARWIN, CHARLES. 1809-1882.


The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication. London: John Murray, 1868. 2 volumes. 8vo. Publisher's catalogue dated April 1867 and February 1868. Wood-engraved illustrations in text. Original green cloth, blind-stamped, spines gilt-lettered. Small chips to spines, soiling to covers, light foxing.Provenance: Henry Reeve (1813-1895), Editor of Edinburgh Review (armorial bookplate).FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, with 5 lines of errata in volume I and 7 lines in volume II. Publisher's presentation copy, with "Presented by Mr. Murray" blind stamp on title page of volume I. This work "intended to provide overwhelming evidence for the ubiquity of variation" and refuted the idea "that variations had not occurred purely by chance but were providentially directed" (ODNB). It also included the first appearance of the phrase "survival of the fittest." Freeman 877; Garrison-Morton 224.1; Norman 597.