Journal of the Beagle Voyage
Charles Darwin, 1839
DARWIN, Charles Robert (1809-1882). Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle, under the Command of Captain Fitzroy, R.N. from 1832 to 1836. London: Henry Colburn, 1839.

First separate edition of Darwin’s first published book. According to Freeman, it is the one most often read, which "stands second only to On the Origin of Species as the most often printed." The first issue forms the third volume of The Narrative of the Voyages of H.M.S. Adventure and Beagle, edited by Captain Robert Fitzroy and published in three volumes with an appendix to volume II in 1839. The second issue, as here, was the first appearance of the work in its own right. It was written up from Darwin’s manuscript diary and the small notebooks forming the memoranda on which the diary itself was based. Freeman 11.

Octavo (233 x 150mm). Half-title, addenda, 2 folding engraved maps, 4 wood-engraved illustrations (both maps with some browning and frayed along outer edges, offset browning from maps on adjacent leaves; occasional spotting and marginal soiling.) Original brownish purple cloth decorated in blind, spine gilt-lettered [Freeman binding variant b] (light rubbing, spine sunned; Zambrano Library of Congress call number label on back pastedown). Provenance: Willian Slaney Kenyon-Slaney (1847-1908, English sportsman, soldier and politician; bookplate).