The Uniqueness of the Individual

London: Methuen & Co, 1957. First Edition. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. A collection of popular science essays, including the title piece on grafts and transplants, the field for which Medawar won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1960.

Medawar (1915-1987) was a distinguished scientist whose research contributed significantly toward transplants as a medical therapy. He was also an innovative thinker on evolution and includes in this volume his essay "An Unsolved Problem in Biology", which tackles the question of senescence, or why organisms deteriorate with age. According to Google Scholar, this essay has been cited nearly 2400 times and its title has become synonymous with the question, with many papers on the subject claiming to have solved the riddle and just as many announcing that the problem remains a puzzle. First edition (first printing). Near fine in a spine-tanned dust jacket, that is otherwise very good.

This copy is inscribed by Medawar to the evolutionary biologist Julian Huxley (Aldous's brother and grandson of Darwin's defender, T. H. Huxley): "Julian / with all good wishes / Peter." Huxley has annotated the margins of several essays, especially the one on Lamarckism, and he has filled the rear free endpaper with his notes, as was his typical practice. This copy was most recently owned by Stephen Jay Gould, another great evolutionary theorist, with a posthumous bookplate denoting the provenance laid in.