From Janet Browne, the author of Charles Darwin: A Biography, Vol. 1 – Voyaging and other works about Charles Dawin, The Quotable Darwin.

Quotes by Charles Darwin are not just the stuff of memes. Even the fake quotes. They can be the center of long arguments, or at least, they can significantly augment the arguments. For example, did you know that while Darwin never used the term “missing link” he did talk about missing links quite a bit, missing links are central to his thinking about evolution, and all those writers of today who claim that we must never speak of missing links are misguided?

My point being, Darwin quotes aren’t just quotes. They are piece of data related to the development of thought about evolution. There are about 300 pages of just quotes, organized by topic, a timeline of Darwin’s life (just a few pages), and an index. Not all the quotes are by Darwin, some are by others responding to him. Many of the quotes are from letter, labeled, of course, as to whom the letter was writtng.

I happen to have the hardcover version. It is a nicely bound, smallish format binding, a bit like a bible in size and shape. Of course. But since the book is about quotes, and this is sometimes something you might want to look up, one might seriously consider the Kindle version which would allow text searches, to the not very evolved extent Kindle devices let you do that.

In case you did not know, Janet Browne is a top Darwin biographer, an historian of science, currently at Harvard but hailing from Great Britain. She has written extensively on Darwin’s correspondence and other writings.

Have you read the breakthrough novel of the year? When you are done with that, try:

In Search of Sungudogo by Greg Laden, now in Kindle or Paperback
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