I was interested to look at Charles Darwin’s Worldcat Identity given his bicentenary next week. The event is being widely marked and there is a long list of celebratory activities at Darwin Online, the site of his digitized papers.
The year 2009 is the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species (24 November 1859) and the 200th anniversary of Darwin’s birth (12 February 1809). This page aims to list the associated worldwide events and publications. [Darwin Online: Darwin 2009 commemorations around the world]
The Identities timeline shows the strong ongoing interest in Darwin and his work.
Here are the most widely held books about Darwin:
- The origin : a biographical novel of Charles Darwin by Irving Stone (Book)
- Darwin and the Beagle by Alan Moorehead (Book)
- Darwin by Adrian J Desmond (Book)
- The tree of life : a book depicting the life of Charles Darwin, naturalist, geologist & thinker by Peter Sís (Book)
- The survival of Charles Darwin : a biography of a man and an idea by Ronald William Clark (Book)
Here are the most widely held books in Worldcat by Darwin, together with the numbers Worldcat shows to give some sense of relative spread:
- The origin of species by Charles Darwin (Book). 615 editions published between 1800 and 2007 in 26 languages and held by 5,639 libraries worldwide
- The voyage of the Beagle by Charles Darwin (Book). 435 editions published between 1800 and 2006 in 16 languages and held by 4,438 libraries worldwide
- The Darwin reader by Charles Darwin (Book). 56 editions published between 1886 and 2007 in 6 languages and held by 2,680 libraries worldwide
- The origin of species by Charles Darwin (Book). 121 editions published between 1859 and 2007 in 12 languages and held by 2,654 libraries worldwide
- The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex by Charles Darwin (Book). 278 editions published between 1870 and 2007 in 15 languages and held by 2,314 libraries worldwide
- Computer version of Darwin’s Descent of man and Origin of species, plus DOS applications.
- The expression of the emotions in man and animals by Charles Darwin (Book). 94 editions published between 1872 and 2007 in 7 languages and held by 2,174 libraries worldwide
- Autobiography and selected letters by Charles Darwin (Book). 68 editions published between 1929 and 2005 in 6 languages and held by 2,045 libraries worldwide
- The life and letters of Charles Darwin, including an autobiographical chapter by Charles Darwin (Book). 150 editions published between 1887 and 2005 in 8 languages and held by 1,916 libraries worldwide
- The voyage of Charles Darwin by Charles Darwin (Book). 67 editions published between 1877 and 2003 in 5 languages and held by 1,464 libraries worldwide
(Yep – The Origin of Species gets in there twice …)
