Some Thoughts on Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species

Frank X. Roberts, Ph.D.

On February 12, 1809, Charles Darwin was born in Shrewsbury, England. We are now fast approaching the 200th anniversary of his birth. Many commemorative celebrations and festivities are being planned around this auspicious event, and no doubt new books and articles about Darwin and his theories will be appearing. It is perhaps to be seriously doubted that readers of Bibliobuffet would query the reason why. But just in case there is a “Why?” out there, let the answer be stated bluntly here: “Because fifty years on (in November 1859) Charles Darwin, then close to his fifty-first year, published a book that changed the world!” That book was, of course, The Origin of Species: By Means of Natural Selection Or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life, to give the volume its full and imposing title.

Thus 2009 is a year which provides Darwin’s admirers world-wide a double reason for celebration, the 200th anniversary of his birth, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his noble (and notorious) book.

Can the claim that Darwin’s Origin of Species is “a book that changed the world” be substantiated? Does it need to be? I will leave the answer to those questions up to the reader. But in my opinion with the writing and publication of this book in 1859 Charles Darwin earned for himself a place in the very limited pantheon of writers whose books have “changed the world.”

Among the few with whom Darwin shares this distinction are: Nicolaus Copernicus, whose De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium removed the earth from the center of the universe; Immanuel Kant, whose Critique of Pure Reason showed that space and time had of necessity to exist prior to any possibility of human experience—a watershed idea that profoundly changed philosophical thought; Sigmund Freud, whose ideas in his books on the human psyche and the influence of the subconscious mind on human behavior have now become an indelible part of modern life and language; and Albert Einstein, whose theories have taken humanity on a baffling and speedy trip through space and time, proving along the way that matter and energy are one, and that all experience is relative.

The word “relative” brings us handily back, in a different sense, to Charles Darwin whose theory of evolution encompasses the idea that all species, human and non-human, are related; that is, all life originated from one central filament or root, the tap root of the many-branched tree of life. This simple statement, that all life sprang from one source and evolved into many types, drastically changed the way humanity came to view itself after 1859. At the same time the publication of Darwin’s book became the proximate cause for the production, in practically every decade since, of some hundreds of books and articles for and against his ideas. Over the years Origin of Species has spawned reactions ranging from outright and incensed rejection by religious fundamentalists to pseudo-scientific explanations for the development of life on earth, such as those expounded by the promoters of  “Creationism” and “Intelligent Design.” Darwin’s book, in short, though it may not have changed all minds, has changed the world. For in spite of their resistance, even those who reject Darwin in toto, continually labor, so far unsuccessfully, to undermine and disprove his theories.

Most people are familiar only with Darwin’s Origin of Species, but he was by no means a one-book writer. His other major books include: Journal of Research Into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle (popularly known as The Voyage of the Beagle), The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, and The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals. Darwin also wrote an autobiography covering the years 1809-1882. Finally, a very good and definitive recent two-volume biography for the non-specialist is: Janet E. Browne’s Charles Darwin: a Biography, Vol. 1 Voyaging (1995) and Vol. 2 The Power of Place (2000).


Frank’s extensive career in teaching and librarianship began when he taught English in the U.S. From 1961 to 1963, as part of a Columbia University program called “Teachers for East Africa,” he taught English and American Literature in East Africa. There he met his wife, Dorothy. They returned to the U.S. where he simultaneously taught and finished two Masters’ degrees, in Education and in Librarianship. In 1968 they returned to England where Frank taught Library Studies, and adopted Hodge, a cat who later traveled around the world with them. In 1972, Frank was “seconded” for two years to teach at Makerere University in Uganda, East Africa, but left reluctantly after one year when the tyranny of Idi Amin became intolerable. From there it was back to England, then Australia and finally  to America in 1979, to Buffalo where Frank earned his doctorate. Later they moved to Colorado, where he was Professor of Library Studies at the University of Northern Colorado until retiring in 1997. Frank published James A. Michener: A Checklist of his Work with a Selected Annotated Bibliography (Greenwood Press) in 1995. He has written on bookmarks, specifically on medieval bookmarks, his special area of interest. A poet by avocation, he writes eclectically but traditionally. Contact Frank.