The Malay Archipelago is a vivid, momentous and far-reaching account of Alfred Russel Wallace's eight-year exploration of South East Asia in the 1850s and 60s. Wallace's travels led him to conceive of evolution through natural selection independently of Charles Darwin, and their theories were jointly proposed in a paper to the Linnean Society in 1858. During his travels he accumulated an astonishing 125,660 specimens, including more than 5,000 species new to western science, establishing his reputation as the 19th century's leading expert on the geographical distribution of animal species and the "father of biogeography". This handsome facsimile has been reproduced from Wallace's personal copy of the 10th edition which includes a number of handwritten annotations made by Wallace himself. This edition was published in 1890, 28 years after the first, and has additional information from subsequent collectors and footnotes in which Wallace corrects some earlier errors. It features illustrations by contemporary artists Thomas Baines, Walter Hood Fitch, John Gerrard Keulemans, E. W. Robinson, Joseph Wolf and T. W. Wood, and includes two fold-out colour maps of the archipelago, one showing the routes he took and the other the volcanic belts in the region. There is also a new foreword by Sandra Knapp, President of the Linnean Society (2018-2022).

About the Author
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) was a man of many talents - an explorer, collector, naturalist, geographer, anthropologist and political commentator. He is most famous as the co-discoverer of evolution by natural selection.

Reviews
"There is no more admirable character in the history of science" Sir David Attenborough



Book Information
ISBN 9780565095390
Author Alfred Russel Wallace
Format Hardback
Page Count 552
Imprint The Natural History Museum
Publisher The Natural History Museum