Readers will learn, from these selections, about Darwin the family man, as well as the context of Darwin's achievements in several developing research fields of the Victorian Age. Darwin knew and cultivated the friendship of such scientists as Sir Joseph Hooker, Alfred Russell Wallace, Richard Owen, Adam Sedgwick, and Thomas Henry Huxley. He conducted an enormous correspondence with all who could aid him in his work. Their name is legion; it is sampled here, and constitutes one of the marvels of Darwin's century.

HAROLD OREL, born in Boston in 1926, served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and earned his academic degrees at the University of New Hampshire (B.A. cum laude, 1948) and the University of Michigan (M.A., 1949, and Ph.D., 1952). He has held teaching appointments at the University of Michigan, the University of Maryland, and the University of Kansas. Promoted to University Distinguished Professor in 1974, and winner of the Higuchi Prize for outstanding research in the Humanities (1990), he has lectured in England, Scotland, France, Switzerland, India, and Japan, and on two occasions delivered the Oration at Thomas Hardy ceremonies in Poet's Corner, Westminster Abbey. He has served as President of the American Committee of Irish Studies, and since 1978 has been Vice President of the Thomas Hardy Society, England. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.