Alfred Wallace, Evolution Through Natural Selection Before Darwin ALS Scientific and Plant Content

4pp of a bifolium, measuring 4.25" x 6.75", The Dell, Essex. England, dated January 4, 1874. A lengthy letter signed "Alfred R. Wallace" and addressed to Reverend A. Jessopp on the topic of map making and trading plants and seeds. Wallace writes of his concerns about recent attempts by a Mr. Everett to publish maps that are "too fragmentary and too meager" and gives his advice on how they may be remedied. He also inquires after Jessopp's collection of Australian plants and suggests that they might trade various species. The letter has flattened mail folds and a few spots of foxing as well as a few areas of contemporary ink smudging. Mounting residue on verso at the spine. Boldly signed, very fine. A 3-page letter of his with better content sold at Auction a month ago for over $65,000!

The letter reads in part:
"I return you herewith Mr. Everett's Maps. I really do not see what purpose would be served by lithographing them, as they are both too fragmentary and too meager to interest anyone in England. The fact that they are as he says - 'on no particular scale' - would of course prevent the Geographical Society from having anything to do with them. The best thing he can do is to keep them and take every means of adding to them till he gets them to form a connected map from the seacoast inland. So many points on the coast & some distance up the river are fixed in the Admiralty Charts that he could easily connect his work to the coast & get a scale on which to lay it down. Then, with the geographical knowledge of the country he is gaining, he could write a valuable paper wh. The Royal Geog. Society would publish with his map. He has written to me about the cave exploration, - but I fear nothing will be done. I have spoken to several geologists, but no one is included to take it up energetically, without which money can not be obtained for the work…A friend tells me that he saw your name in the Gardeners Chronicle (I think) offering to exchange Australian seeds. This leads me to think you make be like myself, an amateur horticulturist, - and may perhaps be able to exchange with me such plants, seeds, etc. as will pass through the post. I also have a large lot (about 100 species) of Australian seeds, which I am trying to raise & see what can be acclimatized here. Mine were from Sydney & Adelaide, - & probably much the same as yours. I should like most, some from Tasmania, as more likely to be hardy. Some species of Pittosporum from N. Zealand have stood the recent posts admirably."

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator, best known for conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection. His findings on the subject were jointly published with some of Charles Darwin's writings in 1858, which then prompted Darwin to publish "On the Origin of Species." Wallace did extensive fieldwork in the Amazon, Asia, and Australasia, and he also became the leading expert on geographical distribution of animal species - gaining him the name "father of biogeography". The Dell was built on the instruction of Wallace in Grays, Thurrock, Essex, and built in concrete - one of the earliest houses in Britain to be constructed with this material. Wallace resided in Grays from 1872-1876, during which time he published several articles and scientific papers, including two volumes of "The Geographical Distribution of Animals".

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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