Darwin fought for lower price on Origin of Species so ‘thirsty souls’ could afford it
CHARLES DARWIN negotiated a reduction in the price of The Origin of
Species with his publisher after receiving letters from working-class tradesmen unable to afford its early editions.
Darwin’s seminal work, published in 1859, was the first to explain the role of natural selection as the basic cause of evolutionary change to the wider public.
His theory of evolution, which implied that humans shared a common ancestor with apes, was embraced by many in the Victorian intelligentsia, who mused over its radical premise.
It has now emerged that, as well as seeking recognition from his peers, the British naturalist was equally keen for his ideas to reach working people interested in biology. To Darwin’s dismay, the first edition of The Origin of
Species cost 15 shillings – equivalent to around £45 today – even though he believed the public was “accustomed” to novels priced closer to one shilling.
The average common labourer, who worked a six-day week in London during the mid-1860s, took home roughly three shillings and nine pence.
Archival letters from the University of Cambridge’s Darwin Correspondence Project reveal touching exchanges with impoverished workers.
George Harris, a tailor and father-offour from Bloomsbury, described himself as one of the “thirsty souls” longing to “drink deep at the fountain of science”.
In a letter penned to Darwin in 1862, he pleaded: “I have taken the liberty to obtrude upon you and to ask of you the favour of a presentation copy of your great work on The Origin of Species – the price being far above my purchasing means.”
Over the following decades, Darwin realised the growing appeal of his ideas as admiring tradesmen absorbed by his revolutionary thinking continued to write to him.
Eventually, in June 1871, Darwin asked
John Murray, his London-based publisher, to slash the cost of the sixth edition of The Origin of Species after hearing that Lancashire traders had to “club together” to buy a single copy.
He managed to get the cost of the edition, released in 1872, down from 15 to seven shillings and sixpence –equivalent to around £23.50 today. It was the last edition of The Origin of Species to be published before Darwin died of heart failure in April 1882.