Edition of the Correspondence of Charles Darwin

《查尔斯·达尔文书信》第一次提供了根据现代文本原则和做法编辑的完整、权威的文本，其中包括查尔斯·达尔文撰写和接收的所有现存信件。该项目始于1974年，将出版30卷经过编辑和注释的信件和答复。书信的第一卷于1985年出版，涵盖1821年至1836年，到2006年7月，已经出版了15卷，使该丛书达到1867年。在这项赠款建议所涵盖的期间，计划进行的研究将是完成从1868年到1870年的第16卷至第18卷的信件。此外，从1871年到1872年，将完成第19卷和第20卷的大量研究和编辑工作。达尔文通信项目由美国学会理事会和剑桥大学图书馆联合管理。弗雷德里克·伯克哈特是该项目的创始董事，现在是总编辑，他在佛蒙特州本宁顿监督该项目。编辑詹姆斯·塞科德教授常驻剑桥，与四名研究和制作编辑、两名计算机助理和一名文书助理一起工作。一位研究编辑在康奈尔大学工作。学术上的功绩如果有的话，很少有科学家在科学领域以及哲学、文化和社会思想之外的影响方面与查尔斯·达尔文相提并论。他关于通过自然选择机制发展新物种的开创性理论对人类看待自己在自然界中的位置的方式产生了持久的影响，这种影响至今仍在继续。查尔斯·达尔文的书信是理解他是核心人物的知识革命的主要来源。在达尔文活跃的职业生涯的45年里，他与记者交换了超过15,000封信件。这些信件揭示了达尔文与其他科学家和线人之间非同寻常的关系，这些关系构成了19世纪大多数领先自然科学家的非凡智力网络，总的来说，它们提供了惊人的证据，证明达尔文如何严重依赖通信来完成他的研究。在书信的正反两面出版中，该项目摆脱了科学史的“伟人”传统(其他大型书信集通常只包括书信的一面)，以揭示19世纪社会更广泛的横截面，从事不同职业和学科的通讯员撰写来自全球各地的文章。广泛的影响书信对于科学史、医学史、社会史、自然科学、哲学、社会学和文学的学生和学者来说是一个宝贵的资源。该项目还致力于让达尔文和他的世界更紧密地受到关注，造福于教师、学童和普通公众。在互联网上展示材料方面，该项目正在探索不同的方式，向不同的利益集团提供信件的相关部分，并提供该项目各种展品和展示材料的图像。1868-1872年是达尔文一生中最多产的年份之一，其中涉及到他的研究重点向人类进化的重大转移，最终出现在人类的起源和与性别有关的选择(1871年)和《人与动物的情感表达》(1872年)。从1868年到1872年的五年间，超过400人，占达尔文通讯员总数的五分之一，第一次与达尔文通信。他的工作是在关于性别关系、种族理论、人类祖先和宗教信仰的丰富辩论背景下进行的。这些年也见证了达尔文在《驯化下的植物和动物的变异》(1868年)中提出的关于遗传理论的辩论的开始，他的信件显示了人们对他关于遗传传递的观点的广泛兴趣，特别是在欧洲科学从业者中。该项目完全致力于以持久和灵活的形式尽可能广泛地以电子方式传播信件和相关材料。达尔文通信在线数据库(http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk))包含所有信件的目录，并简要描述其内容，以及广泛的传记和书目材料。已通过在线数据库免费提供1500多封信件的完整抄本。

IntroductionThe Correspondence of Charles Darwin is making available, for the first time, full, authoritative texts edited according to modern textual principles and practices, of all extant, letters written and received by Charles Darwin. Begun in 1974, the project will publish 30 volumes of edited and annotated letters and responses. The first volume of The Correspondence, covering the years 1821 to 1836, was published in 1985, and by July 2006, fifteen volumes had appeared, bringing the series up to 1867. The planned research to be carried out during the period covered by this grant proposal will be the completion of volumes 16 to 18, from 1868 to 1870, of the Correspondence. In addition, considerable research and editing will be accomplished on volumes 19 and 20, from 1871 to 1872. The Darwin Correspondence Project is jointly managed by the American Council of Learned Societies and Cambridge University Library. Frederick Burkhardt, the founding Director, now General Editor, oversees the project from Bennington, Vermont. Professor James Secord, the Editor, is based in Cambridge, along with the four research and production editors, two computer associates, and a clerical assistant. One research editor is based at Cornell University.Academic MeritFew, if any, scientists equal Charles Darwin in terms of their impact within science and beyond to philosophy, culture, and social thought. His groundbreaking theory of the development of new species through the mechanism of natural selection had enduring repercussions on the way in which human beings see their place in the natural world, repercussions that persist today. Charles Darwin's Correspondence is a prime source for understanding the intellectual revolution in which he was the central figure. Darwin exchanged more than 15,000 letters with correspondents over the 45 years of his active career. The letters reveal the extraordinary extent of Darwin's relationships with other scientists and informants, relationships that constitute a remarkable intellectual network of most of the leading natural scientists of the nineteenth century, and in the aggregate they give striking evidence of how heavily Darwin relied upon correspondence to get his research done. In publishing both sides of the correspondence, the project moves away from the "great man" tradition of scientific history (other large collections of letters often only include one side of the correspondence), to shed light on a much broader cross-section of nineteenth-century society, with correspondents engaged in a variety of occupations and disciplines writing from all parts of the globe.Broader ImpactThe Correspondence is an invaluable resource for students and scholars in history of science, history of medicine, social history, the natural sciences, philosophy, sociology, and literature. The Project is also committed to bringing Darwin and his world into closer focus for the benefit of teachers, schoolchildren, and the general public. In the presentation of material on the internet, the Project is exploring different ways to make relevant sections of the correspondence available to different interest groups, and also to make available images of the project's various exhibits and display materials. These years 1868-1872 were among the most productive in Darwin's life, and they involved a major shift in the focus of his research toward human evolution, culminating in Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), and Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872). More than 400 people, a fifth of Darwin's total number of correspondents, exchanged letters with him for the first time during the five years from 1868 to 1872. His work was undertaken within a rich context of debates about the relations of the sexes, racial theory, human ancestry, and religious belief. These years also saw the beginning of debates about the theory of heredity that Darwin presented in Variation of Plants and Animals under Domestication (1868), and his letters reveal a widespread interest, especially amongst European scientific practitioners, in his views on hereditary transmission. The Project is fully committed to the widest possible electronic dissemination of the letters and associated material, in a form that is both durable and flexible. The Darwin Correspondence Online Database (http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk) contains a catalogue of all letters, with brief descriptions of their contents, and extensive biographical and bibliographical material. Complete transcripts of more than 1,500 letters have been made freely available through the Online Database.