Frederick Burkhardt (1912-2007), the founder of the Darwin Correspondence Project, was president of Bennington College, Vermont, 1947-57, and president of the American Council of Learned Societies, 1957-74. Before founding the Darwin Correspondence Project in 1974, he was already at work on an edition of the papers of the philosopher William James. He received the Modern Language Association of America's first Morton N. Cohen Award for a Distinguished Edition of Letters in 1991, the Founder's Medal of the Society for the History of Natural History in 1997, the Thomas Jefferson Gold Medal of the American Philosophical Society in 2003 and a special citation for outstanding service to the history of science from the History of Science Society in 2005. James A. Secord has served as Director of the Darwin Correspondence Project since 2006. He is also Professor of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Christ's College. Besides his work for the Darwin Project, his research focuses on the history of science from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries. His book, Victorian Sensation: The Extraordinary Publication, Reception, and Secret Authorship of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (2000), won the Pfizer Prize of the History of Science Society. He has recently written on scientific conversation, scrapbook-keeping and public scientific displays.

'Particularly interesting are the early parts of a major row between Darwin and his supporters and the Catholic biologist St George Jackson Mivart. … There is some interesting material here for those interested in the sociology of science. … As always the scholarship is impeccable – difficult handwriting is deciphered, and notes are there to explain arcane points of detail. … there is material here that will forever reward and excite scholars trying to make sense of one of the greatest figures of Western culture. We all owe a huge debt to the late Frederick Buckhardt who had vision and the energy to get this wonderful undertaking off the ground and moving forward to… the point we have reached today.' Michael Ruse, The Quarterly Review of Biology

• List of illustrations; List of letters; Introduction; Acknowledgments; List of provenances; Note on editorial policy; Darwin/Wedgwood genealogy; Abbreviations and symbols; The Correspondence; Appendix I. Translations; Appendix II. Chronology; Appendix III. Diplomas; Appendix IV. Presentation lists for Coral reefs, 2nd edition and Descent 2nd edition; Appendix V. St G. J. Mivart, G. H. Darwin, and the Quarterly Review; Manuscript alterations and comments; Biographical register and index to correspondents; Bibliography; Notes on manuscript sources; Index.