[CHAMBERS, Robert (1802–1871)]

Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation

(London: John Churchill, 1853)

8vo; pp. x, 325, [3], lxvii, [1], [8b with 32 pages of ads, dated June 1853]

Robert Chambers’ anonymously published best-seller Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation is the most significant work of pre-Darwinian evolutionary theory.

As Darwin himself saw it, the book prepared the public mind for his theory of evolution by natural selection. Chambers work was, of course, more speculative and far reaching – connecting stellar evolution to the transmuation of species. In part owing to its anonymous publication it created what Jim Secord has called a ‘Victorian Sensation’.

This copy is from Secord’s own personal collection.

Very good condition: bound in contemporary half-leather, with marbled endpapers. Loosely laid in is Secord’s purchase invoice.