A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro, with an Account of the Native Tribes, and Observations on the Climate, Geology, and Natural History of the Amazon Valley -
Alfred Russel Wallace
1853 - Reeve and Co., London - First Edition
First edition, finely bound, illustrated with one colour lithographed frontispiece, eight lithographic plates by and after Wallace, one map, and a folding letterpress vocabulary table.
In 1848, spurred by their shared reading interests in natural history, Wallace, 25 years old at the time, and Henry Walter Bates boarded a ship for the Amazon basin and his first fieldwork expedition to the Amazon, 1848-1852.
Upon Wallace's return in 1852, his ship caught fire and sunk in the Atlantic, destroying all of his notes and collections. Remarkably, he was able to compile both works, Palm Trees and this narrative of his journey. “That one might demonstrate the fact of evolution through a detailed tracing out of individual phylogenies over time and space was apparent to [Wallace] early on, and the Amazon was to afford a natural laboratory to this end" [ODNB]
‘Meticulous in its detail and impressive in its scope, Wallace’s Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro documents a four-year expedition that launched his scientific career. Wallace's sharp observations of Amazonian geology, topography, flora, fauna and peoples provide a stimulating account of the region.’ [OUP] ‘Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) is regarded as the co-discoverer with Darwin of the theory of evolution. It was an essay which Wallace sent in 1858 to Darwin (whom he greatly admired and to whom he dedicated his most famous book, The Malay Archipelago) which impelled Darwin to publish an article on his own long-pondered theory simultaneously with that of Wallace. As a travelling naturalist and collector in the Far East and South America, Wallace already inclined towards the Lamarckian theory of transmutation of species, and his own researches convinced him of the reality of evolution. On the publication of On the Origin of Species, Wallace became one of its most prominent advocates, and Darwinism, published in 1889, supports the theory and counters many of the arguments put forward by scientists and others who opposed it.’ - Oxford University Press.
Large octavo (binding size 22.6x15.6cm), pp. [2] viii 541 [1] [2 (publisher’s ads)][2]. Bound without the publisher’s full catalogue. Finely bound in full green calf, spine intircately decorated in gilt, twin burgundy morocco labels lettered in gilt, single glit filet borders to boards, gilt inner-dentelles, marbled endpapers. Condition: Near fine, foxing to frontis and title page, one or two minor blemishes, else clean throughout, small area of abrasion to foredge, in fine later binding. Ref: 112508 Price: HK$ 28,000
In 1848, spurred by their shared reading interests in natural history, Wallace, 25 years old at the time, and Henry Walter Bates boarded a ship for the Amazon basin and his first fieldwork expedition to the Amazon, 1848-1852.
Upon Wallace's return in 1852, his ship caught fire and sunk in the Atlantic, destroying all of his notes and collections. Remarkably, he was able to compile both works, Palm Trees and this narrative of his journey. “That one might demonstrate the fact of evolution through a detailed tracing out of individual phylogenies over time and space was apparent to [Wallace] early on, and the Amazon was to afford a natural laboratory to this end" [ODNB]
‘Meticulous in its detail and impressive in its scope, Wallace’s Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro documents a four-year expedition that launched his scientific career. Wallace's sharp observations of Amazonian geology, topography, flora, fauna and peoples provide a stimulating account of the region.’ [OUP] ‘Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) is regarded as the co-discoverer with Darwin of the theory of evolution. It was an essay which Wallace sent in 1858 to Darwin (whom he greatly admired and to whom he dedicated his most famous book, The Malay Archipelago) which impelled Darwin to publish an article on his own long-pondered theory simultaneously with that of Wallace. As a travelling naturalist and collector in the Far East and South America, Wallace already inclined towards the Lamarckian theory of transmutation of species, and his own researches convinced him of the reality of evolution. On the publication of On the Origin of Species, Wallace became one of its most prominent advocates, and Darwinism, published in 1889, supports the theory and counters many of the arguments put forward by scientists and others who opposed it.’ - Oxford University Press.
Large octavo (binding size 22.6x15.6cm), pp. [2] viii 541 [1] [2 (publisher’s ads)][2]. Bound without the publisher’s full catalogue. Finely bound in full green calf, spine intircately decorated in gilt, twin burgundy morocco labels lettered in gilt, single glit filet borders to boards, gilt inner-dentelles, marbled endpapers. Condition: Near fine, foxing to frontis and title page, one or two minor blemishes, else clean throughout, small area of abrasion to foredge, in fine later binding. Ref: 112508 Price: HK$ 28,000