Heredity and Environment in the Development of Men

Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1915. Second edition.

EMERGING QUESTIONS ON GENETICS, EUGENICS, AND SOCIETY IN MONOGRAPH BY LEADING BIOLOGIST E. G. CONKLIN, INSCRIBED TO MRS. CONEY AND SOLD AT LEGENDARY NEW YORK BOOKSHOP OWNED BY WOMEN.

8 inches tall hardcover, publisher's red cloth binding, gilt title to cover and spine, bookseller's label, "The Sunwise Turn, Inc., 2 E 31st St NY" bottom of back paste down. Inscribed front free endpaper, "My dear Mrw. Coney, You are a brave woman to have tackled such a book as this. I assure you that the first 429 pages are the worst. hoping that you will enjoy the rest of it, I am Cordially your friend, E. G. Conklin, Princeton, November 24, 1927." xvi, 550 pp, 82 figures. Light wear to covers, browning to first and last pages, binding tight, pages unmarked, very good.

PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION: "Considerable changes have been made in Chapter III, section on Non-Mendelian Inheritance, Chapter IV section on Inheritance or Non-Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics, and Chapter V sections on Artificial Selection, Origin of Mutations, Past Evolution of Man, and Eugenics."

CONTENTS: Development of the Body, Development of the Mind, Factors of Development, Cellular Basis of Heredity and Development, Phenomena of Inheritance, Influence of Environment, Control of Heredity: Eugenics, Genetics and Ethics.

EDWIN GRANT CONKLIN (1863-1952) was an American biologist and zoologist, professor at Princeton University 1908-1935. He was president of the American Society of Naturalists in 1912 and president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1936. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1914. He also served on the board of trustees for Science Service, now known as Society for Science and the Public, from 1937 to 1952. In 1943 Conklin was awarded the John J. Carty Award from the National Academy of Sciences. Conklin also wrote about nature versus nurture in the study of human development, and his 1915 book Heredity and Environment in the Development of Men (offered here) was dedicated to exploring the roles of heredity and environment in shaping human physical, mental, and moral characteristics. A strong proponent of Charles Darwin's theories, Conklin devoted a great deal of time to lecturing and writing, for the scientific community as well as the public, on the various aspects of evolutionary theory."While extreme eugenicists, including Charles Davenport and Paul Popenoe, argued that social leaders and biologists must work to prevent individuals who were "unfit" from reproducing, moderates, especially Edwin G. Conklin, presented a different view. Although he was sympathetic to eugenic goals and participated in eugenic organizations throughout his life, Conklin realized that eugenic ideas rarely could meet strict hereditary measures. Relying on his experience as an embryologist, Conklin instead attempted to balance more extreme eugenic claims - that emphasized the absolute limits posed by heredity - with his own view of 'the possibilities of development.' Through his critique he argued that most human beings never even begin to approach their hereditary potential; he moderated his own eugenic rhetoric so that it preserved individual opportunity and responsibility, or what has often been labeled the American Dream."--KJ Cooke. J Hist Biol 2002;35(2):365-84.

THE SUNWISE TURN, INC., NEW YORK was a bookshop in New York City that served as a literary salon and gathering-place for F. Scott Fitzgerald, Alfred Kreymborg, Maxwell Bodenheim, Peggy Guggenheim (an intern in 1920), Theodore Dreiser, Robert Frost, Harold Loeb, John Dos Passos and others. It was founded by Madge Jenison and Mary Horgan Mowbray-Clarke in 1916, and operated until 1927. As such, it is one of the first bookshops in America to be owned and operated by women. Its papers - those of its founders and of the bookshop itself - are held by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin. The sale of this book at The Sunwise Turn in New York and Conklin's familiar and humorous inscription to Mrs. Coney reflects the intellectual contribution to questions of science and society by women in America around the time of passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920.