Who published "On the Origin of Species" in 1859?

Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859. Its full first-edition title was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.

Published by John Murray on 24 November 1859, the book presented natural selection as a mechanism through which populations change over generations. Darwin argued that organisms vary, that some variations improve survival or reproduction, and that favorable traits become more common over time. The book therefore became a foundation of modern evolutionary biology.

Darwin had been developing his ideas since the late 1830s, but he delayed publishing a large work while gathering evidence. The arrival of a manuscript from Alfred Russel Wallace in 1858 prompted a joint presentation of their ideas and pushed Darwin toward a shorter, faster publication. Wallace independently developed a theory of evolution by natural selection, but he did not publish the 1859 book.

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck is another common mix-up because he proposed an earlier evolutionary theory. Thomas Henry Huxley vigorously defended Darwin’s ideas but was not the book’s author. The first printing contained 1,250 copies and sold rapidly.