Corresponding with Darwin.

• Author: Pearn, Alison
• Position: Science & Technology - Charles Darwin's letters

CHARLES DARWIN was born 200 years ago--on Feb. 12, 1809, the same day as Abraham Lincoln. This year also marks the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's most famous book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.

Anyone can meet Charles Darwin, as he left a remarkable record of his life and work, his hopes, dreams, and fears--and even what made him laugh--in a collection of private letters and papers. You can meet him as a recent graduate, suddenly offered the adventure of sailing around the world; friend and neighbor; scientist and celebrity; husband and lather, in good times and bad--and whether you believe in his theories, or reject them, or simply never think about them, he is a fascinating man to get to know.

There not only are the letters Darwin wrote, but all of the ones he received, too, and they read like conversations--or e-mail. Conversations with Darwin's close friends, like the Harvard University professor Asa Gray, or the explorer and botanist Joseph Hooker, can be followed over many years. There also are brief exchanges with people who wrote to Darwin from all over the world, either to send him information, or to ask his advice, or simply to tell him how his books had affected their lives.

A good place to start is with Charles Darwin: the Beagle Letters. Perhaps the lust surprise is that Darwin was not born the middle-aged man with a beard, seen staring rather anxiously out from so many book covers and museum posters. You can meet him instead as a University of Cambridge student, doing what students do--having a good time, talking about girls, getting into debt, and facing up to the awful truth that he will have to earn a living ... one day.

Any parent will recognize the mixture of pride, anxiety, and exasperation expressed by Darwin's father when Charles was offered a place on HMS Beagle: he had just paid for his son to take two university courses (Darwin had dropped out of the first one), and now he was being asked to bankroll a two-year round-the-world trip on an Admiralty ship as it surveyed the coast of South America. His son was not even going to have a proper job onboard; he was an unofficial companion to the captain, Robert Fitzroy, barely older than the 22-year-old Darwin, and would be spending his time, well, doing what he had been doing since he was a small boy--collecting rocks and beetles. As the two years stretched to five, Darwin's letters home are sprinkled with apologies to his father for the mounting cost of the trip.

Reading the letters from these years, you can join in this...