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Editing the Darwin Correspondence: A Quantitative Perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

William Montgomery
William Montgomery
Affiliation:
Former Associate Editor of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin. Department of Interdisciplinary Studies, North Adams State College, North Adams, Massachusetts 01247, U.S.A.
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Extract

Letter writing played an especially important role in Charles Darwin's scientific career. Like all scientists, he often needed to communicate with his colleagues, but Darwin's needs were unusual. In the first place, he lived for only short periods in centres where conversation with other scientists was possible. During his student days in Edinburgh and Cambridge he enjoyed personal contacts with university professors and other naturalists associated with the university communities; however, from 1831–1836 he sailed on the Beagle voyage. After his return he lived in London, the centre of British science, but only until 1842 when, partly due to ill-health, he withdrew to the rural village of Down in nearby Kent where he spent the rest of his life. Darwin was not totally isolated in Down. From time to time friends and colleagues paid visits, often to consult about scientific questions. Furthermore, Darwin travelled to London more frequently than has sometimes been supposed. In addition to occasional lengthier visits recorded in his Diary, he also made one-day trips, carefully recording his expenses in his account book. The record of his account book shows that during the early years in Down, he travelled to London more than a dozen times a year, though as he grew older the number of trips declined. Even during the early years, he still depended on the mail for much of the time to keep him in touch with fellow researchers.

Type
Research Article
Information
The British Journal for the History of Science , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , January 1987 , pp. 13 - 28
Copyright
Copyright © British Society for the History of Science 1987

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References

1 Down House, copy at American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia.

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16 I wish to thank the Darwin correspondence project, and especially its managing editor, Stephen V. Pocock, for the use of these figures.

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25 I wish to thank James Levitt of Potsdam College, SUNY, for sorting the information in the tables.

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