Name:
Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russell Wallace (misspelling)
Dates:
Born: January 8, 1823 in Usk, Monmouthshire, Wales
Died: November 7, 1913
Biography:
Alfred Russel Wallace was a naturalist who developed a theory of natural selection and
evolution independently of Charles Darwin. He was inspired to develop his ideas in
part through reading Malthus's Essay on the Principle of Population and in part
through his exploration of Amazon River with his mentor Henry Walter Bates.
He wrote down his ideas a manuscript entitled "On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the Original Type" which he sent to Charles Darwin in June 1858 for comments instead of directly to publishers. Darwin immediately recognized the strong similarities between Wallace's work and his own; for a long time Darwin had been holding back publication of his theories in the hope of increase the evidential support and scientific arguments. However, he now realized that he needed to publish before Wallace or someone else got the first.
Although he did not actually coin the phrase "survival of the fittest" (that was Herbert Spencer), he did suggest to Charles Darwin that he use it in order to better convey his ideas to the general public. He may not have been the first to introduce the theory of natural selection and evolution to the world, he nevertheless vigorously defended it and Darwin throughout his life both publicly and privately.
