More on Marx and Darwin

I sent your message on to a friend of mine who specializes in the
history of biology. He dashed off this response. Hope it's helpful
-------------------(Alan Spector)


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        To the person requesting info on the Darwin-Marx connection --
there was a short exchange of letters in 1873, following Marx's dispatch
of
a complimentary copy of the 2nd German edition of Kapital to Darwin.
Darwin wrote back a short, perfunctory response saying he appreciated
the
copy but that he was not sure he could understand "political economy (he

understood Malthus and Adam Smith quite well, however).  Anyway, that
was
the end of the exchange (a later letter from Darwin in 1880 was thought
to
be a response to Marx's request to dedicate another edition of Kapital
to
Darwin, but it later turned out to be in response to a request from
son-in law Edward Aveling to dedicate to Darwin a popularization of
evolutionary theory for students.

        If you want more details on the Darwin-Marx relationship,  wrote
a
relatively short article in 1992, as part of a symposium from the Field
Museum in Chicago, and published in MATTHEW H. NITECKI AND DORIS V.
NITECKI, History and Evolution (Albany, State UYniv of New York Press,
1992): pp 211-239.  If you want a LOT MORE detail check out the
excellent
book by PAUL HEYER, Nature, Human Nature and Society (Greenwood Press,
1982).

                                                -- Gar Allen

Professor of Biology
Washington University

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