The Student's Darwin (1st Ed.- Scarce)

London: Freethought Publishing Company, 1881. First. Hardcover. Very Good. From Wikipedia:
"Edward Bibbins Aveling (1849 - 1898) was an English comparative anatomist and popular spokesman for Darwinian evolution, atheism and socialism. He was also a playwright and actor.

He was the author of numerous scientific books and political pamphlets; he is perhaps best known for his popular work The Student's Darwin (1881); he also translated Ernst Haeckel's Gesammelte populäre Vorträge, as The Pedigree of Man (1883); the first volume of Karl Marx's Das Kapital, and Friedrich Engels' Socialism: Utopian and Scientific. He was elected vice-president of the National Secular Society in 1880, he was a member of the Democratic Federation and then a member of the executive council of the Social Democratic Federation and was a founding member of the Socialist League and the Independent Labour Party. During the imprisonment of George William Foote for blasphemy he was interim editor for The Freethinker and Progress. A monthly magazine of advanced thought. With William Morris he was the sub-editor of The Commonweal. He was an organizer of the mass movement of the unskilled workers and the unemployed in the late 1880s unto the early 1890s and a delegate to the International Socialist Workers' Congress of 1889. For fourteen years he was the partner of Eleanor Marx, the youngest daughter of Karl Marx, and co-authored many works with her.

This copy is Good + in the original publisher's green cloth with gilt titles and borders on the spine and front cover.  An original erratum slip is inserted before the first page.  The front hinge is cracked, but the binding is still sound.  Covers show minor wearn=, scuffing and soiling.   The spine is somewhat sun darkened, and the text shows very slight age toning.
The ink name of a previous owner is at the top of the front pastedown, but there are no other marks or damage to the contents.
Although this is a very early, if not the first, introductory textbook to Darwin's work, it is quite scarce in the market, and I cannot find any other copies currently available.  Interestingly, the well-known political activists Annie Besant and Charles Bradlaugh are listed as printers for this work.

. CH.