Charles Darwin, Edward Blyth, and the Theory of Natural Selection (association copy)

Inscribed at the top of the front cover to his close colleague in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Pennsylvania: "To Pete, with affection from Loren." A scarce booklet, scarcer signed. OCLC/WorldCat finds just eight copies in eminent libraries. "Pete" is Alfred Irving Hallowell, a decorated anthropologist and archaeologist who studied Native Americans, especially the Ojibwe, and "Hallowell" is written in pencil at the bottom of the front wrap. His papers are found at the American Philosophical Society, the publisher of this volume. 

Reprinted in the same year from the Proceedings of The American Philosophical Society (Vol. 103, No. 1, February 1959), this booklet is the first discrete appearance of Eiseley's controversial and ultimately discredited argument that Darwin's all-important theory was secretly inspired by earlier articles by little known zoologist Edward Blyth. Eiseley doggedly stuck by and continued to develop this argument until his death, and in fact it was the subject of his last book, Darwin and the Mysterious Mr. X (1979), published two years after his passing. 

Quarto, beige cardstock wraps, staple bound, 55 glossy pages in the interior. Very good with sunning/browning to both top and bottom edges of wraps, lower front corner with a small dogear; interior pages are fine.  "A.L. Christenson" is stamped in red ink on the inside of the back cover. A great find for a collector of science writing, the history of evolutionary thinking, or Darwiniana.