The Malay Archipelago: The Land of the Orang-Utan, and the Bird of Paradise
London: Macmillan & Company Ltd., 1869.
First edition. Complete in two volumes. xxiii, 478, [2], 53, [3]; [iv], 524 pp. With two frontispieces, six engraved plates, nine maps (two folding and tinted), and 43 text illustrations. Tissue guards present. Publisher's ads at the end of first volume dated May 1869. Bound in publisher's green cloth with gilt stamping, brown coated endpapers. Very Good+, some staining to cloth, rubbing to gilt on front board of Vol. II and along edges. A couple of minor ink marks to contents, endpapers slightly chipped at edges, hinges cracked at front but holding, four plates in vol. II with slight marginal stain not affecting printed area. Former owner's name written in pencil on front free endpapers.
One of the great classics of 19th century travel and natural history, and a key work in the literature of evolution and the search for the origin of species. It was during the course of the travels recounted in this book that Wallace independently discovered evolution by natural selection in 1858, prompting Darwin to publish The Origin of Species in 1859. "On the basis of artistic format, literary style, and scientific merit, it is clearly one of the finest scientific travel books ever written" (Dictionary of Scientific Biography). "Ranks with a small handful of other works as one of the nineteenth century's best scientific travel books" (Howgego p. 625).
Price: $6,500.00