Whitwell Elwin
Encyclopedia
Whitwell Elwin was an English clergyman, critic and editor of the Quarterly Review
.
Son of a country gentleman of Norfolk
, Whitwell Elwin studied at Caius College, Cambridge, and took orders. He was an important contributor to the Quarterly Review
, of which he became editor in 1853.
He undertook to complete Croker's edition of Alexander Pope
, and brought out five volumes, when he dropped it, leaving it to be finished by William John Courthope
. As an editor he was extremely autocratic, and on all subjects had pronounced opinions, and often singular likes and dislikes.
He is also known for being sent an advance copy of a new book by the naturalist Charles Darwin
. Elwin is said to have read the book with interest and agreed that it had merit, but feared that the subject of evolution
was too narrow to attract a wide audience. Elwin urged Darwin to write a book about pigeons instead, but his advice was ignored and On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life was published in late November 1859, priced at fifteen shilling
s.
Quarterly Review
The Quarterly Review was a literary and political periodical founded in March 1809 by the well known London publishing house John Murray. It ceased publication in 1967.-Early years:...
.
Son of a country gentleman of Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, Whitwell Elwin studied at Caius College, Cambridge, and took orders. He was an important contributor to the Quarterly Review
Quarterly Review
The Quarterly Review was a literary and political periodical founded in March 1809 by the well known London publishing house John Murray. It ceased publication in 1967.-Early years:...
, of which he became editor in 1853.
He undertook to complete Croker's edition of Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
, and brought out five volumes, when he dropped it, leaving it to be finished by William John Courthope
William John Courthope
William John Courthope , was an English writer and historian of poetry, whose father was rector of South Malling, Essex....
. As an editor he was extremely autocratic, and on all subjects had pronounced opinions, and often singular likes and dislikes.
He is also known for being sent an advance copy of a new book by the naturalist Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
. Elwin is said to have read the book with interest and agreed that it had merit, but feared that the subject of evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
was too narrow to attract a wide audience. Elwin urged Darwin to write a book about pigeons instead, but his advice was ignored and On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life was published in late November 1859, priced at fifteen shilling
Shilling
The shilling is a unit of currency used in some current and former British Commonwealth countries. The word shilling comes from scilling, an accounting term that dates back to Anglo-Saxon times where it was deemed to be the value of a cow in Kent or a sheep elsewhere. The word is thought to derive...
s.