DARWIN, Francis. Life and Letters of Charles Darwin.

(London): John Murray, 1888.  Seventh thousand revised.  Three volumes, IX [1] 395[2], [1] 393 [2], IV, 414 [1].  Includes a broad selection of letters to 28 different recipients on a variety of topics, selected by Darwin’s son Francis, who was “largely guided by the wish to illustrate [his] father’s personal character.” Topics include Darwin’s early life, “The Foundations of the ‘Origin of Species”, botanical letters, and many others. Correspondents include Louis Agassiz, H. W. Bates, Thomas Henry Huxley, Asa Gray, and others, along with various family members.  All volumes in very good condition with gilt lettering to the spine, each with frontis portrait of Darwin.  Each volume with previous owner’s nameone with date (1969) on front endpaper, the other on reverse of frontispiece is of L.F. de  Beaufort additionally with his bookplate to the a pastedown of the third volume. Lieven Ferdinand de Beaufort was a Dutch biologist who, in 1903, participated in the North New Guinea Expedition. In the 1920s he was director of the Zoological Museum of Artis in Amsterdam and later zoogeography professor at the University of Amsterdam.   Beaufort is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of lizard, Sphenomorphus beauforti.  A nice set of this increasingly uncommon work.