The Malay Archipelago: The Land of the Orang-Utan, and the Bird of Paradise. A Narrative of Travel, with Studies of Man and Nature by Wallace, Alfred Russel - 1872

London: MacMillan and Co., 1872. xvi, 653, [1], [2 - Adverts], frontispiece, 2 folding maps, 7 plates, numerous wood engravings to text. . HB. Small 8vo (194x128mm), orig. green publisher's cloth, double-ruled, black border with central gilt design of orang-utan to front cover and black and gilt rules with gilt bird of paradise to spine, some rubbing and minor wear to joints, corners and head/foot of spine. Large printed prize book-plate to front pastedown; several later owners' names to blank recto of frontispiece. Occasional minor foxing. A very good copy.. Fourth edition of this classic work on natural history and exploration. This 'edition' is a reprint of the third edition published earlier the same year.Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) was a notable English naturalist, evolutionist, geographer, anthropologist, social critic, and the co-discoverer with Charles Darwin of the theory of evolution and natural selection. Following a collecting expedition to the Amazon with Henry Walter Bates, Wallace decided to continue his collecting in the Indonesian Archipelago and obtained a grant from the Royal Geographical Society to cover his passage. He spent eight years between 1854 and 1862 travelling throughout the archipelago, which became the defining period of his life. Of 125,660 specimens collected during this period, more than a thousand were new to science. 'The Malay Archipelago' describes his travels and experiences there and 'ranks as one of the nineteenth century's best scientific travel books' (Smith). During his travels, Wallace independently formulated the theory of evolution by natural selection. His letter to Darwin in 1858 outlining his ideas hastened Darwin into publishing 'On the Origin of Species' the following year. Charles Lyell and Joseph Hooker arranged for both Darwin's and Wallace's theories to be presented to a meeting of the Linnaean Society in 1858.Smith, S715 (online bibliography); Troelstra, p. 448..