The Darwin Conspiracy (46 page)

Thomas Carlyle, Darwin’s contemporary, called history “the distillation of rumor.” This book was undertaken in that spirit.

It is a work of fiction. The historical characters are all real—in the sense that they actually existed—and almost all their actions here correspond with what the historical record tells us about them.

I have, however, taken significant liberties in several areas.

One is the end that befell Robert McCormick, Darwin’s jealous rival on the
Beagle.
Another is the portrayal of Elizabeth Darwin, about whom little is known. I have seized upon this blank canvas to construct a portrait and an imaginary lineage that suits my alternative narrative.

The modern-day characters are entirely fictitious. There is a well-known longitudinal study of evolutionary changes 
among finches in the Galápagos, documented in the Pulitzer Prize–winning book
The Beak of the Finch,
which provided material for scene-setting details and information on natural selection, but any resemblance to real persons is unintentional and purely coincidental.

Darwin scholars and institutions housing and promoting his work turn out to be extremely generous when it comes to 
helping a writer, even one who admits to crossing the boundary from scholarship into fiction. Among them, I would like to especially thank Frederick Burkhardt and his colleagues, engaged in the long-term research project
The Correspondence
of Charles Darwin,
for their guidance, and Adam Perkins of the Cambridge University Library, for making available material from the Darwin archives. I am also indebted to John Murray, Darwin’s publisher; the Linnean Society of London; the Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum in London; and Down House in County Kent, all of which provided extensive tours and explanations about his life, research, and publications. I also thank the Field Museum and its president and CEO, John W. McCarter, Jr., and Donald Stewart, for 
sponsoring an essential and unforgettable voyage to the Galá
pagos in July 2002.

Books on Darwin are so numerous that they could stock an entire library wing. Among them are some I found especially useful. Janet Browne’s two-volume biography—
Voyaging
and
The Power of Place
—were indispensable. I also borrowed liberally from Alan Moorehead’s highly readable
Darwin and the
Beagle. I culled details on life at Down House from
Annie’s
Box
and
Period Piece;
on Darwin’s supporters and enemies
from
Apes, Angles and Victorians;
on the voyage around the world from
HMS
Beagle; and on Captain FitzRoy’s tragic story from
Evolution’s Captain.
Jonathan Weiner’s
The Beak of
the Finch,
which describes the groundbreaking evolutionary study on the island of Daphne Major in the Galápagos, provided essential information (down to the nickname of the 
“welcome mat” for the docking site) that I used for my fictional counterpart on Sin Nombre.

On a personal note, I thank Phyllis Grann, my editor, for shaping and shepherding the manuscript; Sonny Mehta, my 
publisher, for his suggested revisions; and Kathy Robbins, my agent, for her ideas and enthusiasm. I thank Bill Keller, executive editor of
The New York Times,
for granting me three months’ leave and Marion Underhill of the
Times
’ London bureau for tracking down information. And finally, I thank my family—my brother, Bob, and my children, Kyra, Liza, and James—for vetting the manuscript. Above all, I thank my wife, Nina, for reading every word, discussing every idea, helping create every character, and never once saying she was sick and tired of the whole damn thing.

Barrett, Andrea.
Ship Fever.
New York: W. W. Norton, 1996.

Bowlby, John.
Charles Darwin, A New Life.
New York: W. W. Norton 1991.

Browne, Janet.
Charles Darwin, Voyaging.
New York: Knopf, 1995.

———. Charles Darwin,
The Power of Place.
New York: Knopf, 2002.

Darwin, Charles R.
The Voyage of the
Beagle. New York: Penguin Books, 1989. First published in 1839 by Henry Colburn.

———.
Charles Darwin’s Letters: A Selection, 1825–1859.
Edited by Frederick Burkhardt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

———.
Charles Darwin’s
Beagle
Diary.
Edited by R. D. Keynes.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

———.
The Origin of Species.
New York: Penguin Classics, 1985. First published in 1859 by John Murray.

Desmond, Adrian, and Moore, James.
Darwin.
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Ferguson, Niall.
Empire.
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Harlan, John.
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What the Victorians Did for Us.
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Irvine, William.
Apes, Angels and Victorians.
New York: Time-Life Books, 1963.

Jackson, Michael H.
Galápagos, A Natural History Guide.
Alberta, Canada: University of Calgary Press, 1985.

Keynes, Randal.
Annie’s Box: Charles Darwin, His Daughter, and
Human Evolution.
London: Fourth Estate, 2001.

Marks, Richard Lee.
Three Men of the
Beagle. New York: Knopf, 1991.

McDonald, Roger.
Mr. Darwin’s Shooter.
New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 1998.

Moorehead, Alan.
Darwin and the
Beagle. London: Hamilton, 1969.

Morgan, Kenneth O.
The Oxford Illustrated History of Britain.
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Nichols, Peter.
Evolution’s Captain.
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O’Connor, Stephen.
Orphan Trains.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001.

Perkin, Joan.
Victorian Women.
New York: New York University Press, 1995.

Raverat, Gwen.
Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood.
London: Faber and Faber, 1952.

St. George, E. A. W.
The Descent of Manners: Etiquette, Rules, and the
Victorians.
London: Chatto & Windus, 1993.

Thomson, Keith Stewart.
HMS
Beagle:
The Story of Darwin’s Ship.

New York: W. W. Norton, 1995.

Tort, Patrick.
Charles Darwin: The Scholar Who Changed Human
History.
London: Thames & Hudson, 2001.

Weiner, Jonathan.
The Beak of the Finch.
New York: Knopf, 1994.

White, Michael, and Gribbin, John.
Darwin: A Life in Science.
New York: Dutton, 1995.

Wilson, A. N.
The Victorians.
London: Hutchinson, 2002.

Winchester, Simon.
Krakatoa.
New York: HarperCollins, 2003.