Origin Story

By early morning 30 June 1860, a large crowd began to congregate in front of Oxford University's brand-new Museum of Natural History. The occasion was the annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science and the subject of discussion was Charles Darwin's new treatise: fact or fiction? Darwin had introduced a cogent explanation of the origin of species-how they adapted, even transmogrified, through natural selection. At stake was the very foundation of modern biology, not to mention the future of the church.
In Origin Story, medical historian Howard Markel recounts the two-year period (1858-1860) of Darwin's writing of On the Origin of Species through its spectacular success and controversy. Simultaneously, Markel delves into the mysterious health symptoms Darwin developed, presenting the first accurate diagnosis of a case that has long fascinated medical historians. The result is a colourful portrait of the man, his friends and enemies and his seminal work, which resonates to this day.

Over the past forty years, Howard Markel, MD, PhD, has practiced pediatrics and taught medical history at Johns Hopkins and University of Michigan. He is an award-winning author or editor of many books including his most recent history of DNA, The Secret of Life. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a Guggenheim fellow. His work has appeared in the New York Times and The New Yorker. He lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.