The Autobiography of Charles Darwin was written between 1876 and 1881 and first published in 1887, five years after Darwin’s death, in The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, edited by his son Francis. The published version was significantly censored — Francis removed passages critical of Christianity and of Darwin’s father-in-law, Josiah Wedgwood. The full, uncensored text was not published until 1958, when Darwin’s granddaughter Nora Barlow issued a definitive edition.
The autobiography is modest in tone — Darwin repeatedly describes himself as a man of ordinary abilities who succeeded through persistence rather than genius — but the modesty is genuine rather than false. Darwin describes his schooldays (which he loathed), his time at Edinburgh and Cambridge (where he was supposed to study medicine and then divinity but spent his time collecting beetles), the decisive invitation to join HMS Beagle, and the subsequent development of his theory.
The most remarkable passages concern his loss of religious faith, which was gradual rather than dramatic. Darwin did not reject Christianity because of his theory — the loss of faith preceded The Origin and was driven by intellectual difficulties with the Old Testament, by the problem of suffering, and by the death of his daughter Annie in 1851. “I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true,” he writes, “for if so the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my Father, Brother and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.”
Collecting The Autobiography
First publication (in Life and Letters, John Murray, 1887): Three volumes, cloth binding.
Market values:
- Life and Letters, first edition, three volumes, fine: $1,000–$3,000
- Nora Barlow uncensored edition (Collins, 1958): $100–$300
- Very good: $40–$100