Title: Man’s Place in the Universe: A Study of the Results of Scientific Research in the Relation to the Unity or Plurality of Worlds
Author: Alfred Russel Wallace
Publisher: Chapman and Hall, 1912.
Condition: Hardcover, no dust jacket. Significant staining, rubbing and wear to cover, with stained and tanned edges. Mild foxing to pages, and an inscription in pencil bearing the name “J. L. Thomas”. Binding tight.
One of Wallace’s most important works explaining his theory of intelligent evolution, which challenged Darwin’s theories. This book was printed a year before Wallace’s death.
About the book (from Wikipedia):
Wallace’s 1904 book Man’s place in the universe was the first serious attempt by a biologist to evaluate the likelihood of life on other planets. He concluded that the Earth was the only planet in the solar system that could possibly support life as we know it, mainly because it was the only one in which water could exist in the liquid phase. More controversially he maintained that it was unlikely that other stars in the galaxy could have planets with the necessary properties (the existence of other galaxies not having been proved at the time).
About Alfred Russell Wallace (from Wikipedia):
Alfred Russel Wallace OM FRS (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, and biologist. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection; his paper on the subject was jointly published with some of Charles Darwin’s writings in 1858. This prompted Darwin to publish his own ideas in On the Origin of Species. Wallace did extensive fieldwork, first in the Amazon River basin and then in the Malay Archipelago, where he identified the faunal divide now termed the Wallace Line, which separates the Indonesian archipelago into two distinct parts: a western portion in which the animals are largely of Asian origin, and an eastern portion where the fauna reflect Australasia.
Wallace was strongly attracted to unconventional ideas (such as evolution). His advocacy of spiritualism and his belief in a non-material origin for the higher mental faculties of humans strained his relationship with some members of the scientific establishment. In addition to his scientific work, he was a social activist who was critical of what he considered to be an unjust social and economic system in 19th-century Britain. His interest in natural history resulted in his being one of the first prominent scientists to raise concerns over the environmental impact of human activity.