Even if you set aside his theory of evolution, Charles Darwin's many books, papers, and other works still make him one of the greatest naturalists of the nineteenth century. If you add in the theory of evolution, he's one of the greatest naturalists of all time. So it's not surprising that he's been the subject of a great many books. I have a few of them:
CHARLES DARWIN: A NEW LIFE
Bowlby, John
c.1990, W. W. Norton
ISBN:
A biography of Darwin which focuses not on his scientific work, but on his personal and family life. During most of his adult life, Darwin suffered from a mysterious malady that weakened him physically and kept him from doing nearly as much as he would have liked. The author's intent here was to explore the nature of Darwin's physical ailment, its origins and how and why it affected him as it did.
CHARLES DARWIN: VOYAGING
Browne, Janet
c.1995, Princeton Univ Press
ISBN: 0-691-02606-8
Another biography of Darwin. This one focuses on his scientific work and his relationship with other great scientists of his day.
DARWIN AND THE BEAGLE
Moorehead, Alan
c.1969, Harper & Row
ISBN: 06-013017-2
An examination of Darwin's voyage aboard the HMS BEAGLE. Everyone knows the basic story of Darwin's experiences aboard the BEAGLE; however, there's a lot of legend mixed in with the classic account. This book looks at what really happened: what Darwin discovered and how it gradually changed his thinking about life and its origins.
DOCTOR DARWIN
Pearson, Hesketh
c.1930, Walker & Co
ISBN:
A biography of the "other" Darwin, Dr. Erasmus Darwin, Charles's grandfather. Erasmus Darwin is an interesting figure in his own right, as he was a religious rogue, an amateur naturalist, and developed some incomplete ideas on evolution that may well have affected his grandson.
THE LIFE OF CHARLES DARWIN
Darwin, Francis
c.1995, Senate Press
ISBN: 1-85958-148-X
Francis Darwin's biography of his father, first published in 1902. The text consists of Darwin's short autobiography, plus many selected letters from Darwin's library. Francis Darwin adds a lot of his own commentary.
THE SURVIVAL OF CHARLES DARWIN
Clark, Ronald W.
c.1984, Random House
ISBN: 0-394-52134-X
A brief biography of Darwin-the-scientist mixed with a history of the theory of evolution since Darwin proposed it.
THREE MEN OF THE BEAGLE
Marks, Richard Lee
c.1991, Avon
ISBN: 0-380-71838-3
A book about three different men whose lives intertwined aboard the HMS Beagle: Charles Darwin, naturalist; Captain Charles FitzRoy, expedition commander; and Jemmy Buttons, a native from Tierra del Fuego that the Beagle was bringing back to his home after several years in England.
WHAT DARWIN REALLY SAID
Farrington, Benjamin
c.1966, Schocken Books
ISBN: 0-8052-1062-8
A short book that looks at some of the misconceptions about what Darwin did and didn't say in his writings about evolutionary theory.
