OSBORN (Henry Fairfield) The Origin and Evolution of Life. F - Lot 196

OSBORN (Henry Fairfield) The Origin and Evolution of Life. French edition with a preface and notes by Félix Sartiaux. 126 illustrations and figures. Paris, Masson et Cie, Publishers, 1921. Large 8vo, XXXV-304 pp., numerous black-and-white figures and illustrations in the text, paperback, with the publisher’s printed and illustrated cover. First French edition, published four years after the original American edition, *The Origin and Evolution of Life* (New York: Scribner’s Sons, 1917). It was edited, prefaced, and annotated by Félix Sartiaux. The bibliographic collation is indeed XXXV-304 pages and 126 illustrations; this is confirmed by several institutional catalogs. An important synthesis by the American paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn (1857–1935) devoted to the origin of life and the mechanisms of evolution. In it, the author develops a conception of evolution based on the action, reaction, and interaction of energy, drawing heavily on paleontology and the study of vertebrate fossils. The original edition was based on the Hale Lectures delivered at the National Academy of Sciences in 1916. The book is extensively documented: the physicochemical origins of life, the development of the earliest life forms, and the evolution of fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, featuring numerous paleontological reconstructions. A review published in 1922 already described it as an interesting synthesis intended particularly for the non-specialist reader. Copy preserved in its original binding, a condition that has become rare for this work. An old handwritten provenance note appears at the top of the title page. The cover is dusty and worn, with creases, small tears, and missing material at the corners and margins; the spine is likely brittle. The interior is nevertheless in fair condition, with some foxing and signs of wear.

Estimation:€20

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