Oct 24, 2019 - Sale 2521

Sale 2521 - Lot 250

Price Realized: $ 138
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 200 - $ 300
WELLS, WILLIAM CHARLES. Two Essays: One upon Single Vision with Two Eyes; The Other on Dew . . . and an Account of a Female of the White Race of Mankind, Part of whose Skin resembles that of a Negro; with Some Observations on the Causes of the Differences in Colour and Form between the White and Negro Races of Men. lxxiv, [2], 439 pages, including half-title. Bookseller's 16-page catalogue bound at end. 8vo, 224x138 mm, modern black leatherette; contents clean. wide-margined copy. London: Archibald Constable & Co., 1818

Additional Details

first collected edition, including the first printing of the Account of a Female of the White Race, the first formulation of the principle of natural selection. "Wells's paper on a white woman with patchy brown discoloration of the skin contains an almost complete anticipation of Darwin's theory . . . although it was completely ignored until it was resurrected by a correspondent of Darwin's in the 1860s"--Garrison-Morton 216.2. Norman 2200.