News - Off Beat Stories
Rare Charles Darwin book found on toilet bookshelf
Posted: Nov 22, 2009 7:07 AM by Associated Press
An auction house says it is selling a rare first edition of Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species" found in a family's guest lavatory in southern England. Christie's auction house said Sunday the book - one of around 1,250 copies first printed in 1859 - had been on a toilet bookshelf at a family's home in Oxford.
The book will be auctioned on Tuesday - the 150th anniversary of the publication of the famous work. Christie's said the book is likely to sell for 60,000 pounds ($99,000).
Darwin's "The Origin of Species" outlined his theory of natural selection - the foundation for the modern understanding of evolution.
Celebrations around the world this year have marked the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth.
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