Charles Darwin's Library Digitized

The Biodiversity Heritage Library has digitized the books of Charles Darwin's personal library. It is utterly fascinating to read some of the annotations that Darwin himself has scrawled in the margins of many of his books.

Here is one such example from page 276 of  The American beaver and his works by Lewis H. Morgan, where Mr. Darwin has written:

American beaver stay away from me. American beaver mama let me be. Don't come a-dammin' around my door. I don't wanna see your furry face no more.

With atypical Victorian gentlemanliness, he pens his irritation of the Yankee Castor while showing his wonderful sense of humour and lyrical ability.

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