Evolution, and the Cost of the Human, An Address (Originally prepared for the Civic League of New Orleans) Giving a Sketch of the Development of the Earth from Chaos to Yesterday.

by Stephenson, Eli Frank

$250 · Offered by Biblio

First edition · Signed

Saint Louis: the author", Labor Publishing Co., 1911. First edition. RARE LITTLE TREATISE ON HUMAN EVOLUTION BY AN OBSCURE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHER--INSCRIBED BY HIM. 8 inches tall hardcover, 3/4 leather binging, marbled boards, spine with raised bands and gilt title, bookplate of R. Burdette Inman on front paste-down, and his stamp "RB Inman, Safety Engineer" on title page. Long ink inscription across preface, "Burdette: My compliments to my one best friend at New Orleans, & whose ... help I miss a lot--Many thanks for your timelss efforts which enhanced my knowledge of Chemistry and Geology. Eli Frank Stephenson, 1911," 90 pp. Light wear to cover edges, light browning to pages, very good in custom archival mylar cover. ELI FRANK STEPHENSON self-published this rare little treatise 52 years after Darwin's Origin of Species. The preface begins with, "One dark and stormy night, in the boarding-house of a saw-mill town on Pearl River, Mississippi, a dozen men--sawyers [sic], engineers, dry-kiln men, teamsters--were gathered round a roaring fire of fat-pine knots in the big fire-place, bent on passing away the evening as comfortably as they could." There are only 6 copies of the book in world libraries (the Harvard copy digitized online). It is a philosophical treatise on the continuing evolution of man and the importance of science in understanding a hopeful future for humanity. There is little historical information about the author, but in the addendum at the end of the book, he c

• Publisher: The Author, Labor Publishing Co.
• Year: 1911
• Edition: First Edition
• Binding: hardcover

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