Today is the 150th anniversary of the publishing of the original “Origin of Species” text from Charles Darwin. In remembrance of this history occasion, be sure to check out an earlier post here on VizWorld covering a visualization of the many versions of the text created by Ben Fry.
Tracking “The Origin of Species” | VizWorld.com.
Charles Darwin’s “The Origin of Species” is of the most important, and controversial, scientific texts of all time, but many people don’t realize that Darwin spent his entire life refining and updating it. In fact, the six versions of the text printed during his lifetime grew from 150,000 words to 190,000, with many changes:
The second edition, for instance, adds a notable “by the Creator” to the closing paragraph, giving greater attribution to a higher power. In another example, the phrase “survival of the fittest” — usually considered central to the theory and often attributed to Darwin — instead came from British philosopher Herbert Spencer, and didn’t appear until the fifth edition of the text. Using the six editions as a guide, we can see the unfolding and clarification of Darwin’s ideas as he sought to further develop his theory during his lifetime.
Ben Fry has chronicled the changes in the text over these 6 editions in a web-based Java applet caled “The Preservation of Favored Traces” where you can see edits, insertions, and deletions throughout the six texts.
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