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[Illustration]
Alfred Russel Wallace
Letters and Reminiscences
By
James Marchant
_With Two Photogravures and Eight Half-tone Plates_
IN TWO VOLUMES
Volume I
CASSELL AND COMPANY, LTD
London, New York, Toronto and Melbourne
1916
To the Memory of
ANNIE WALLACE
PREFACE
These two volumes consist of a selection from several thousands of
letters entrusted to me by the Wallace family and dating from the dawn
of Darwinism to the second decade of the twentieth century, supplemented
by such biographical particulars and comments as are required for the
elucidation of the correspondence and for giving movement and continuity
to the whole.
The wealth and variety of Wallace's own correspondence, excluding the
large collection of letters which he received from many eminent men and
women, and the necessity for somewhat lengthy introductions and many
annotations, have expanded the work to two (there was, indeed, enough
good material to make four) volumes. The family has given me unstinted
confidence in using or rejecting letters and reminiscences, and although
I have consulted scientific and literary friends, I alone must be blamed
for sins of omission or commission. Nothing has been suppressed in the
unpublished letters, or in any of the letters which appear in these
volumes, because there was anything to hide. Everything Wallace wrote,
all his private letters, could be published to the world. His life was
an open book--"no weakness, no contempt, dispraise, or blame, nothing
but well and fair."
The profoundly interesting and now historic correspondence between
Darwin and Wallace, part of which has already appeared in the "Life and
Letters of Charles Darwin" and "More Letters," and part in Wallace's
autobiography, entitled "My Life," is here published, with new
additions, for the first time as a whole, so that the reader now has
before him the necessary material to form a true estimate of the origin
and growth of the theory of Natural Selection, and of the personal
relationships of its noble co-discoverers.
My warmest thanks are offered to Sir Francis Darwin for permission to
use his father's letters, for his annotations, and for rendering help in
checking the typescript of the Darwin letters; to Mr. John Murray,
C.V.O., for permission to use letters and notes from the "Life and
Letters of Charles Darwin" and from "More Letters"; to Messrs. Chapman
and Hall for their great generosity in allowing the free use of letters
and material in Wallace's "My Life"; to Prof. E.B. Poulton, Prof. Sir
W.F. Barrett, Sir Wm. Thiselton-Dyer, Dr. Henry Forbes, and others for
letters and reminiscences; and to Prof. Poulton for reading the proofs
and for valuable suggestions. An intimate chapter on Wallace's Home Life
has been contributed by his son and daughter, Mr. W.G. Wallace and Miss
Violet Wallace.
J.M.
_March, 1916._
CONTENTS
Volume I
INTRODUCTION
PART I
I. WALLACE AND DARWIN--EARLY YEARS
II. EARLY LETTERS (1854-62)