Darwin Letter Friday
Darwin Letter Friday
Charles “connoisseur of deserts” Darwin has reached Cape Town, which he finds to be a great mass of boarding houses and inns, bustling with travelers to the far East and back. The word “Nabobs” refers to people returning from overseas, often India, having acquired wealth there. Towards the end of the letter, rather amusingly, Darwin [...]
Darwin Letter Friday
September 19, 2008 As Darwin watches the preparation of the H.M.S. Beagle, he gets (understandably) excited. It also turns out that Captain FitzRoy was popular with the ladies. Darwin fears that he will get seasick on the voyage; it happens to everyone. Little did he know how bad it would be, and that raisins were [...]
Darwin Letter Friday
The writer’s life hasn’t changed much. Move to the big city, live in a tiny apartment, and get dragged down by all the distractions and frustrations that accompany this process. When I moved to New York, I had the same demoralizing situation; jobless for several months; interning for free. So I can relate to Darwin’s [...]
Darwin Letter Friday
September 5, 2008 What do you pack for a journey around the world? Well, if the year is 1831, guns. Lots of them. Charles Darwin wrote his sister Susan 177 years ago tomorrow with a packing list for the H.M.S. Beagle voyage, and fears that he’s a bother for asking for more and more stuff. [...]
Darwin Letter Friday
August 29, 2008 Daddy! I wanna go on the boat! The fateful decision is made September 1: Charles Darwin will indeed sail on the Beagle. Here’s some back-and-forth between Charles, his father, and Francis Beaufort, British Royal Navy Captain and hydrographer. Beaufort approved Darwin for the voyage, and his Wikipedia entry alone is testament to [...]
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