# Is "Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature" by Thomas Henry Huxley a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature by Thomas Henry Huxley (Williams and Norgate, 1863) is identified by: First edition, first issue.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First edition, first issue
- The frontispiece -- the well-known composite plate comparing the skeletons of gibbon, orangutan, chimpanzee, gorilla, and man -- is printed as an integral part of the preliminaries, on the verso of leaf [A]2, in the first issue
- The first issue also carries a publisher's catalogue dated February 1863, while a later issue of the same year carries a catalogue dated August 1863
- Bound in publisher's pebbled green cloth; this was the first book devoted entirely to the question of human evolutionary origins
- Publisher imprint reads Williams and Norgate
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Thomas Henry Huxley |
| Publisher | Williams and Norgate |
| Year | 1863 |
| True first | — |
| Format | Hardcover (trade) |
| Key point | First edition, first issue |
| Book-club edition exists? | — |

## Points of issue
First edition, first issue. The frontispiece -- the well-known composite plate comparing the skeletons of gibbon, orangutan, chimpanzee, gorilla, and man -- is printed as an integral part of the preliminaries, on the verso of leaf [A]2, in the first issue. The first issue also carries a publisher's catalogue dated February 1863, while a later issue of the same year carries a catalogue dated August 1863. Bound in publisher's pebbled green cloth; this was the first book devoted entirely to the question of human evolutionary origins.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Evidence as to Man's Place in Nature* by Thomas Henry Huxley a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/evidence-as-to-mans-place-in-nature
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.