A Natural Calling: Life, Letters and Diaries of Charles Darwin and William Darwin Fox

This book provides new factual material on Charles Darwin, following many years of research into Darwin’s relationship to his cousin William Darwin Fox. It is a biographical and historical account of the letters exchanged by these two men and the diaries of W D Fox have never been accessed before. The relationship between Darwin and Fox has been acknowledged as a major biographical source on Darwin. Here the life of Fox is carefully pieced together and compared and contrasted with that of Darwin. Since Darwin and Fox were undergraduates together at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and corresponded with each other for the rest of their lives, dying within two years of each other, the diaries allow us a vivid insight into the unique relationship of these two naturalists and family friends. Both were studying to be clergymen of the Church of England, when Darwin was offered a place on The Beagle. Thereafter their lives diverged, as Fox became the country parson that Darwin might have been. Never the less, Fox supplied many facts to Darwin, which were used in the "Origin of Species" and later books. The views and opinions exchanged between these two men greatly enlarge our appreciation of the life and contribution of Charles Darwin at a profoundly personal level.

This book fills a large gap and will be very timely for the Darwin Bicentenary in 2009