“Yes, It Should be a Colon and not a
Comma”
A Note on the “Curious” Title of Until
Darwin
“A Different Account of Difference”Fara, P. Science & Education (2016) 25: 933. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-016-9842-6B. Ricardo Brown (2010/2016) Until Darwin, Science, Human Variety and the Origins of Race. Routledge, London & New York, ISBN: 978-1-138-66,144-8, 199pp, (paperback)
In a well considered and greatly
appreciated review, Patricia Fara remarks on “the
curiously titled” Until Darwin. This brought a chuckle as
the printed title has always been a source of both humor and
annoyance to me. So let me tell a little story behind it.
And let me first state that the
original working title for most of the 8 or 9 years of the research
and writing was Ecce Homo: The Scientific Classification of Human
Variety & The Origins of Race. It
was noted that although much of the text was centered on Darwin, his
name did not appear in the title and of course this was at the time
of the anniversary celebrations were about to get underway. So I took
the suggestion to change the title to Until Darwin: Science, Human
Variety, and the Origins of Race. Somehow in the copyright
application that the publisher (the late and lamented Pickering and
Chatto) submitted substituted a “,” for my “:” – which was
of course a surprise and I promptly contacted them about the error.
Let me
be clear that Pickering and Chatto was a joy to work with in every
other way and all of our interactions were quite great, except it
seemed that in this one instance, I was told that because of changes
in the way librarians in the U.K. were cataloging titles, having a
comma was the only way to get the entire title in the title field.
Secondly, that Pickering had a new editorial policy against colons in titles(!). I thought this was curious, not least because
I had worked as a legal reference librarian for 11 years. I argued
that the title now really did not make sense, but my protests feel
on deaf ears. I offered to pay to resubmit the paperwork with a new
title, but was again told that it was not possible and then I decided not to literally argue over a comma.
So, this is all water under the bridge, but let me just state that
the actual title of Until Darwin is:
Until
Darwin: Science, Human Variety and the Origins of Race
The
original manuscript of Ecce Homo contained two additional chapters
focusing on Classical notions of human difference, especially in
Pliny the Elder. These will no doubt appear in a coming work.
Finally,
in light of thinking about this, I am going to post the unedited
proof of Until Darwin as a series of posts on this blog.
And
again, many thanks to Patricia Fara and the other reviewers of Until
Darwin. All of your criticisms will find their way into coming
works.
“A Different Account of Difference”
Fara, P. Science & Education (2016) 25: 933. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11191-016-9842-6
B. Ricardo Brown (2010/2016) Until Darwin, Science, Human Variety and the Origins of Race. Routledge, London and New York, ISBN: 978-1-138-66,144-8, 199 pp, £34 (paperback)
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11191-016-9842-6
Selected reviews: Isis, Vol. 102, No. 4 (December 2011); British
Journal for the Philosophy of Science, 45 (1):135-136 (February 2012); Studies in
the History and Philosophy Science Part C: Studies in History and
Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Vol. 44, No. 3
(September 2013); Victorian Studies Vol. 57, No. 2 (Winter 2015).
