First edition, presentation copy, to Edward William Vernon Harcourt, inscribed by the recipient at the head of the title, “E. W. Harcourt, from the Author, 1859″ and with his bookplate to the front pastedown. Presentation copies of the Origin are rare, and no copy is known to have been inscribed by Darwin himself. Darwin had written to the naturalist Harcourt (1825–1891) on 19 August 1856 asking to borrow his copy of Christian Ludwig Brehm’s work on German ornithology, as he wanted “to see how far Brehm goes in splitting species”.
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