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Title: The Autobiography of Charles Darwin
From The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin

Author: Charles Darwin

Editor: [Charles Darwin's son] Francis Darwin

Posting Date: September 21, 2008 [EBook #2010]
Release Date: December, 1999

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF DARWIN ***

Produced by Sue Asscher

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF CHARLES DARWIN

From The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin

By Charles Darwin

Edited by his Son Francis Darwin

[My father's autobiographical recollections, given in the present
chapter, were written for his children,--and written without any
thought that they would ever be published. To many this may seem an
impossibility; but those who knew my father will understand how it was
not only possible, but natural. The autobiography bears the heading,
'Recollections of the Development of my Mind and Character,' and end
with the following note:--"Aug. 3, 1876. This sketch of my life was
begun about May 28th at Hopedene (Mr. Hensleigh Wedgwood's house in
Surrey.), and since then I have written for nearly an hour on most
afternoons." It will easily be understood that, in a narrative of a
personal and intimate kind written for his wife and children, passages
should occur which must here be omitted; and I have not thought it
necessary to indicate where such omissions are made. It has been found
necessary to make a few corrections of obvious verbal slips, but the
number of such alterations has been kept down to the minimum.--F.D.]

A German Editor having written to me for an account of the development
of my mind and character with some sketch of my autobiography, I have
thought that the attempt would amuse me, and might possibly interest
my children or their children. I know that it would have interested me
greatly to have read even so short and dull a sketch of the mind of my
grandfather, written by himself, and what he thought and did, and how he
worked. I have attempted to write the following account of myself, as if
I were a dead man in another world looking ba