A book by Western Carolina University biology professor and Highlands Biological Station director James Costa titled Wallace, Darwin and the Origin of Species has been published by Harvard University Press.

The book provides an in-depth look at the work of 19th-century English naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace, who co-discovered the principle of natural selection in 1858. Costa analyzes the development of Wallace’s thinking through the lens of the naturalist’s “Species Notebook,” the field notebook and journal in which Wallace recorded his evolutionary ideas during his eight years of exploration in Southeast Asia in the 1850s. 

“This engaging and very accessible book is the most comprehensive and well-balanced account of the development of Wallace’s early evolutionary thinking ever written,” said George Beccaloni, curator and director of London’s Natural History Museum A.R. Wallace Correspondence Project.

James Costa, 828.526.2602 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..