Contrary to the beliefs of many Darwin scholars, the great evolutionist did not delay publishing his theory for fear of professional ridicule or social shame. According to a new analysis of Charles Darwin's correspondence, the real reason was much more prosaic - he was snowed under with work.
In his autobiography Darwin said "I gained much by my delay" in publishing his theory of evolution by natural selection in 1859 as opposed to when he originally conceived it in 1839. But John van Wyhe, at Cambridge University, argues that the common interpretation of "Darwin's delay" is not correct. Darwin did not hold back his work On the Origin of Species to avoid a hostile reaction among his peers or denunciation by the church. Instead, he was tied up with writing about his travels around the world on the Beagle and other projects.
"The assumption of Darwin's delay has led to a distorted picture of the man and his science, but there is an army of evidence to suggest that he did not avoid publishing his theory for 20 years at all," said Dr van Wyhe, director of Darwin Online.
In their 1992 biography of the great naturalist Adrian Desmond and James Moore argued that Darwin knew his theory would be despised by social elites and play into the hands of radicals. "In these riot-torn years [his theory was] safely tucked away in his secret notebooks, and only in the very distant future would he even think of publishing," they wrote.
But Dr van Wyhe believes that Darwin's letters and notebooks tell a different story. They record at least 28 people whom Darwin told about the idea. "Darwin was aware that his theories would be despised but that does not mean he was afraid of saying what he believed," added Dr van Wyhe. He believes that the delay was due to Darwin being bogged down in finishing his accounts of his travels and a detailed set of works on barnacles and other invertebrates that took eight years.