[THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE] JOURNAL OF RESEARCHES INTO THE NATURAL HISTORY AND GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTRIES VISITED DURING THE VOYAGE OF H. M. S. BEAGLE ROUND THE WORLD, UNDER THE COMMAND OF CAPT. FITZ ROY, R. N.

The first issue of the second, definitive, edition of Darwin's first published book. Tenth Thousand. Crown 8vo. Original green cloth with blind-stamped ornamental design to front and rear panels. Lettered, ruled, and with ornaments in gilt to the spine. 32 pp. of publisher's advertisements dated "December, 1861" bound in at the rear (Freeman notes that the inserted adverts in this edition "may be as late as September 1868"). Illustrated with 11 black and white wood engravings and diagrams throughout the text. All edges untrimmed. A very good copy, the binding square and firm with minor abrasion, rubbing, and some nicking to spine tips and mild fraying to the outer hinges, the lower portions of the gilt ruling a little worn. Front inner hinge partially cracked, but holding. The contents, with a previous owner's bookplate to front pastedown, a faded ink signature to the front endpaper, small square of adhesive residue (c. 2 x 2.5 cm) visible to the lower edge of the rear pastedown (due to removal of the original binder's label) are otherwise clean with just a little light spotting to prelims and final leaves.

Charles Darwin's first published book, now universally known as 'The Voyage of the Beagle', but not issued with that title until 1905, is, as Richard Freeman notes in his bibliography of the author, "undoubtedly the most often read and stands second only to 'On the Origin of Species' as the most often printed". Darwin's account of his travels aboard HMS Beagle between 1831 and 1836 has an appropriately circuitous bibliographical history. It was first issued as the third volume (of three) of 'The narrative of the voyages of H. M. Ships Adventure and Beagle' (1839), edited by Robert Fitzroy, Captain of the Beagle; Darwin's volume, simply titled 'Journal and remarks, 1832-1836' was also reissued alone the same year. A second edition followed in 1845, as 'Journal or researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of H. M. S. Beagle round the world [...]'), but it is this 1860 edition, described by Freeman as the "Final definitive text", that became the template for the countless editions that followed. Darwin provided new preliminaries and a postscript (dated Feb. 1st, 1860) outlining changes and corrections made to the text. The work itself, a groundbreaking fusion of travel narrative and scientific fieldwork is, as Freeman notes,"an important travel book in its own right" as well as its significance "[in] relation to the background of [Darwin's] evolutionary ideas". The green cloth binding for the 1860 edition is notable for being identical to that of the first three editions of 'On the Origin of Species'. (Freeman 20).