Thinking to respond
Darwin despaired, paused, then shared.
Pressed to Origin.
Charles Darwin first conceived of his theory of evolution by natural selection in the late 1830s and began work in earnest on his “big book” in the 1840s. Yet it was not until he received a letter from Ternate, Indonesia, from the younger naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace in 1858, threatening to rob him of his originality for the idea, that he was pressed into months of intense activity to publish in 1859 an “abstract” of his longer work that appeared as “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection . . ”
Darwin was thrown into great anguish by Wallace’s letter and request from Wallace to help get it published. He confided in scientist friends who urged him to prepare a parallel brief summary of his own ideas, extracted from his private essay of 1842. They arranged for both papers to be read before the Royal Society. These did not attract much interest, but “On the Origin” certainly did.
Further reading:
Don Waller teaches ecology, evolution, and conservation biology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He trained in evolutionary ecology, seeking to understand population dynamics, life history and mating system evolution, and the causes and consequences of inbreeding. He then morphed into a conservation biologist studying rare plants and threats to diversity. He now studies meta-community dynamics and the forces driving long-term changes in temperate forest plant communities. These include habitat fragmentation, aerial N deposition, invasive species, and overabundant deer. He also seeks to use science to improve forest, wildlife, and environmental management. To better understand deer and hunters, he became a bow hunter.