A01=Howard Markel
Author_Howard Markel
biology
Category=DNBT
Category=NH
Category=PDX
Category=PSAJ
darwin
darwin biography
darwin history
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_science
evolution
history of medicine
medical mystery
natural selection
naturalists
science history
victorian era nonfiction
victorian medicine
Product details
- ISBN 9781324110347
- Weight: 291g
- Dimensions: 137 x 211mm
- Publication Date: 10 Jun 2025
- Publisher: WW Norton & Co
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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By early morning of 30 June 1860, a large crowd began to congregate in front of Oxford University’s brand-new Museum of Natural History. The occasion was the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, and the subject of discussion was Charles Darwin’s new treatise: fact or fiction?
Darwin, a simultaneously reclusive and intellectually audacious squire from Kent, claimed to have solved “that mystery of mysteries”, introducing a logical explanation of the origin of species—how they adapted, even transmogrified, through natural selection. At stake, on that summer’s day of spirited debate, was the very foundation of modern biology, not to mention the future of the church. Without fear of exaggeration, Darwin’s thesis would forever change our understanding of the life sciences and the natural world. And yet the author himself was nowhere to be found in the debate hall—instead, he was miles away, seeking respite from a spate of illnesses that had plagued him for much of his adult life.
In Origin Story, medical historian Howard Markel recounts the two-year period (1858 to 1860) of Darwin’s writing of On the Origin of Species through its spectacular success and controversy. Simultaneously, Markel delves into the mysterious health symptoms Darwin developed, combing the literature to emerge with a cogent diagnosis of a case that has long fascinated medical historians. The result is a colourful portrait of the man, his friends and enemies and his seminal work, which resonates to this day.
Howard Markel, MD, PhD, has practiced pediatrics and taught medical history at Johns Hopkins and University of Michigan. An award-winning author of The Secret of Life, National Academy of Medicine member, and Guggenheim fellow, he lives in New York.
