Abstract
Evolution was a difficult topic to tackle when writing books for the young in the wake of the controversies over Darwin’s Origin of Species. Authors who wrote about evolution for the young experimented with different ways of making the complex concepts of evolutionary theory accessible and less controversial. Many authors depicted presented evolution in a non-Darwinian form amenable to religious interpretation.
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Notes
Parton (1883, 55).
Ibid., 55.
Dawson (2007, 4, 12, 15, 28).
Pandora (2009, 77–78).
Abbott (1860, 37–38).
It was published previously in installments in Macmillan’s Magazine from August 1862 to March 1863.
Lightman (2007, 75–81).
Beatty and Hale (2008, 143, 145–146).
Published by Macmillan in England, it reached an eighteenth edition by 1899. At first the book was priced at 7s6d, somewhat expensive for a popular audience. But trying to capitalize on its popularity, Macmillan sold cheaper editions in 1869 (6s) and in 1871 (5s). In the United States, Water Babies was published by Macmillan as well as by other publishers.
Indeed, scholars have barely touched the topic of science books for the young in the latter half of the nineteenth century. For a helpful overview see Fyfe (2003a), see also sections of Lightman (2007, especially 20, 82–83, 124, 182–183, 212, 407–410, 429–431). The topic of the role of periodicals in this period as a source of science writing for children awaits examination. In this article I have chosen to focus on books, which by itself provides a manageable scope for an article-length study.
Lerer (2008, 173–177, 181, 184).
Lightman (2010, 5–24).
According to J. H. McDaniels, who wrote the introduction to a volume of Garrison’s correspondence, his beliefs owed little to Christianity. “By devotion to a reasoned morality”, McDaniels asserted, “by his absolute surrender to the voice within, he belonged to the tribe of Socrates, and followed that high and solitary pathway, not asking the warm companionship of Christian faith and hopes which sustained his father’s ideals”. See McDaniels (1909, xvi).
Garrison to Darwin (1879). I am indebted to Jim Secord, Rosy Clarkson, and Jim Moore for drawing my attention to this letter and other correspondence between Garrison and Darwin.
Darwin to Garrison [1879].
[Garrison] (1880, 12).
Ibid., 13.
Fyfe (2003b, xxiii).
[Garrison] (1880, 17–19).
Ibid., 9–11.
Ibid., 10–11.
Archives of Swan Sonnenschein & Co. (1973, 9, 11).
Mawer (1889, 8, 52, 64).
Ibid., 37–38.
Both were published in London by Stanford and in New York by Appleton. Life and Her Children went through at least two Stanford editions in England, and later, in 1954, Macmillan published it. It may have been more successful in the United States, where it reached a fourteenth edition in 1904. Winners in Life’s Race was not as popular. At least two editions appeared in England and eight editions in the United States.
Darwin (1887, vol. 1, 64).
Wallace (1905, vol. 2, 378).
Lightman (2007, 242–252).
Ibid., 238–253.
Buckley (1882, viii).
Buckley later wrote several books for Cassell’s series, Eyes and No Eyes, published in 1901.
Buckley (1879, 1–7, 13–19).
Buckley (1881, 33, 77, 93, 266).
Ibid., 1–2, 5–6.
Ibid., 13, 33, 50–51, 142, 231, 233–234.
Buckley (1882, 69).
Ibid., 345–346.
Ibid., 346, 352–353.
George graduated with a B.A. in physical science from Oxford in 1880. Shortly thereafter he went to South Africa as a lecturer at the University of Capetown. He returned to England a few years later to study medicine, working at several medical schools, including the Westminster, St. Bartholomew’s, and St. Thomas’s. He became demonstrator in the physiological department of the first, as well as resident medical officer at Ockley Sanatorium. In 1893 he proceeded to the M.A. at both Oxford and Capetown. Afterwards he settled into practice at Grimsby. In 1902 he joined his brother Albert at Louth. See Obituary (1914, 563).
Gresswell (1888, ix, 3).
Gresswell and Gresswell ([1884], 3–6).
Ibid., 11–17.
Ibid., 32, 65, 67, 69–70.
Ibid., 77–79.
Ibid., 104–105.
Ibid., 108.
Ibid., 113, 115, 121–123, 126–127.
Ibid., 131–136.
Holder (1892, v). Published in New York and London by G. P. Putnam’s Sons, the biography was intended for both American and English readers. Priced at 7s6d, it had a limited circulation, reaching a second edition.
Ibid., vi, 2.
Ibid., 47, 128, 134.
Ibid., 147–148.
Ibid., 172–173, 178.
Secord (1889, 182–186).
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Acknowledgments
The author would like to acknowledge the help of colleagues as he worked on this piece. Katherine Pandora provided useful suggestions on American children’s literature. Shannon Delorme tipped me off to the existence of the delightful Wonderland of Evolution. Two anonymous referees supplied valuable comments on an earlier draft. This article includes excerpts from a piece on early biographies of Darwin. These sections are published with permission of Notes and Records of the Royal Society.
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Lightman, B. Evolution for Young Victorians. Sci & Educ 21, 1015–1034 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-010-9333-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-010-9333-0