Charles Darwin Writes His Colleague Alfred R. Wallace Asking for a Meeting, Immediately After the Publication of Wallace’s Work on Evolution and its Application to Higher Life

The following month, he would publish a work that questions evolution’s application to humans

 

Letters of Darwin to Wallace are uncommon, this being the first we’ve had

Alfred Russel Wallace was a biologist and a friend and colleague of Charles Darwin. Wallace worked on his concept of evolution in the 1850s, paralleling Darwin. Wallace knew Darwin was working on similar research. In 1858, he sent Darwin a letter outlining his ideas about evolution. The two collaborated on a scientific paper, discussing their evidence for natural selection and evolution. In this paper, together Wallace and Darwin proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection. The paper was read at a meeting of the Linnean Society of London on July 1, 1858, before being published on the August 20 of that year. In 1859, Darwin published his book “On the Origin of Species”, which presented his theory of natural selection to a broader audience. The theory of evolution by natural selection became known as Darwin’s theory. Though Wallace’s contributions to the study of evolution were considerable, they are often forgotten.

In 1862, Wallace visited Darwin at Down House. During the 1860s, Wallace wrote papers and gave lectures defending natural selection. He actively corresponded with Darwin about topics including sexual selection, warning coloration, and the possible effect of natural selection on hybridization and the divergence of species. In March of 1871, Darwin published “Descent of Man”, and “Selection in Relation to Sex”, a book that addresses both human evolution and sexual selection. Darwin later worked on the second edition of “Descent of Man” and asked Wallace to help edit the proofs in 1873.

While Darwin was still revising his manuscript of Descent, the public debate over human evolution grew more heated. Alfred Russel Wallace had expressed reservations about the application of natural selection to the development of the higher intellectual faculties of humans. His views were presented more fully in a collection of essays, the second part of which was published on March 3, 1870. Wallace wrote to Darwin in January 1870 warning him of the impending publication. The work would be “Contributions to the theory of natural selection”. This second part saw Wallace argue that species change had proceeded much more rapidly earlier than it had recently.

Autograph letter signed, 6 Queen Anne St., London, March 7, to Wallace, asking for a meeting. The Darwin Papers at the University of Cambridge conjectures that the year of the letter is 1870, as Darwin was in London from 5 to 12 March 1870.

“My dear Wallace: Though I have nothing particular to say, I sh(ould) very much like quarter of an hours talk with you. So if I do not hear to contrary I will venture to call about 10 o’clock on Wednesday morning; & I sh(ould) think you will have finished breakfast at that late hour. Yours Sincerely C. Darwin”. Letters of Darwin to Wallace are uncommon, this being the first we’ve had.