Interesting. The Origin was offered for sale at a book fair, and the major
buyers were bookstore owners and other book dealers. It was also eagerly
awaited. So it is quite possible that all available copies were sold the
first day -- not as individual copies, however.

Incidentally, a book-loving ornithological pair spent several years tracking
down all copies of the original 'elephant folio' edition of Audubon's
'Birds'. I forget the exact numbers, but my impression is that something
like 400 of the original 700 copies remain intact, and most are in public
libraries now. Some were dismembered so that individual plates could be
framed and sold (recall that the birds are reproduced at natural size, and
each plate is the size of a poster). And some were destroyed in accidental
fires or as a result of war. Many of the wartime casualties took place in
the American South, where the book was relatively popular.

And one copy turned up a hundred years later, having been walled up in an
old house in Charleston, South Carolina. What a nice find to make while
remodeling!

Andrew K. Rindsberg
Geological Survey of Alabama

-----Original Message-----
From: Conchologists of America List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
Behalf Of Riccardo Giannuzzi-Savelli
Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 4:11 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: origin of the species - Darwin


The first edition of Darwin:


Darwin
  On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection,
or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. London, John
Murray, 1859. 8vo, pp.[ix] + 502 + 32 First Edition. Only 1192 copies of the
1250 copies were for sale and demand was so immediate that Darwin wrote in
his diary "all copies sold
  first day", a permissible exaggeration.
A second edition followed immediately of 3750 copies.



I have a copy for sale of this first edition.
In really nice contemporary half calf.
Adverts as usual discarded by binder

If someone interested please contact me privately

With regards
Riccardo Giannuzzi-Savelli