[Photobook]The expression of the emotions in man and animals by DARWIN, Charles (1809-1882) - 1873

London: John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1873. First Edition. Decorative Cloth. Fine. Third Issue (tenth thousand) of this "important member of the evolutionary set" (Freeman) and one of the first mass-market books to contain photographs. Crown 8vo (118 x 189mm): vi,374,4(integral ads dated Nov. 1872),32(advertisement insert dated May, 1882)pp, with 7 heliotype plates (none folding) numbered with Roman numerals, reproducing 30 photographs by Duchenne de Boulogne, O. J. Rejlander, Kindermann, and Dr. Wallich, and 21 wood engravings in the text. Publisher's standard blind-paneled green cloth, spine stamped in gilt, chocolate end papers. A pristine example, pages uniformly crisp and bright, binding tight and secure. Neat contemporary ownership signature of Waldo O. Ross, dated '82, to second blank (likely Dr. Waldo O Ross, class of 1868 at MIT and son of Matthias Denman Ross (1819-92), founder of the Boston Thread and Twine Co, and a founders of MIT). Freeman 1144. Imagining Paradise, p. 86. Truthful Lens 43. Written by Darwin on the heels of The Descent of Man, "in part at least, as a confutation of the idea that the facial muscles of expression in man were a special endowment." (Freeman) "With this book Darwin founded the study of ethology (animal behavior) and conveyance of information (communication theory) and made a major contribution to psychology" (Dictionary of Scientific Biography). Not incidentally, The expression of the emotions was the "first highly successful use of the collotype [photographic] process of Ernest Edwards. Editions in French and English were issued, as well as an American edition, . . . [but] the London edition [ours] has the most successful reproductions." (Truthful Lens) Six of the 30 photographs originally appeared in Mécanisme de la Physionomie Humaine, a pioneering study of the effects on the skin of muscle contraction induced by electrical shock. Darwin's publisher warned that including photographs "would poke a terrible hole in the profits." N. B. With few exceptions (always identified), we only stock books in exceptional condition, carefully preserved in archival, removable mylar sleeves. All orders are packaged with care and posted promptly. Satisfaction guaranteed. (Fine Editions Ltd is a member of the Independent Online Booksellers Association, and we subscribe to its codes of ethics.).