My Life: A Record of Events and Opinion

Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 – 1913) was a British biologist and explorer, best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural selection. 


This classic autobiography is organized as follows: 


I. My Relatives and Ancestors 

II. Usk: My Earliest Memories 

III. Hertford: The Home of My Boyhood 

IV. Hertford: My School Life 

V. Hertford: My Home-Life 

VI. London Workers, Secularists and Owenites 

VII. Bedfordshire: Surveying 

VIII. Bedfordshire: Turvey 

IX. Bedfordshire: Silsoe and Leighton Buzzard 

X. Kington and Radnorshire 

XI. Brecknockshire 

XII. Shropshire and Jack Mytton 

XIII. Glamorganshire: Neath 

XIV. First Literary Efforts 

XV. Remarks on My Character at Twenty-One 

XVI. London and Leicester 

XVII. Residence at Neath 

XVIII. The Journey to the Amazon 

XIX. “In Memoriam” 

XX. In London, and Voyage to Singapore 

XXI. The Malay Archipelago—Singapore, Malacca, Borneo 

XXII. Celebes, the Moluccas, New Guinea, Timor, Java, and Sumatra 

XXIII. Life in London, 1862–1871—Scientific and Literary Work 

XXIV. Home Life—My Friends and Acquaintances—Sir Charles Lyell 

XXV. My Friends and Acquaintances—Darwin 

XXVI. My Friends and Acquaintances—Spencer, Huxley, Mivart, Etc. 

XXVII. My Friends and Acquaintances: Sir James Brooke, Professor Rolleston, Mr. Aug. Mongredien, Sir Richard Owen, Dr. Richard Spruce 

XXVIII. My Friends and Acquaintances—Dr. Purland, Mr. Samuel Butler, Professor Haughton 

XXIX. Sketch of My Life and Work, 1871–1886 

XXX. An American Lecture Tour—Boston to Washington 

XXXI. Lecturing Tour in America—Washington to San Francisco 

XXXII. Lecturing Tour in America—California to Quebec 

XXXIII. Literary Work, Etc., 1887–1905 

XXXIIIA. Excursions and Examinations 

XXXIV. Land Nationalization to Socialism, and the Friends They Brought Me 

XXXV. Mesmerism to Spiritualism—Correspondence With Scientific and Literary Men 

XXXVI. Two Biological Inquirers: An Episode in the History of Spiritualism 

XXXVII. Spiritualistic Experiences in England and America 

XXXVIII. The Anti-Vaccination Crusade 

XXXIX. A Chapter on Money Matters—Earnings and Losses —Speculations and Law-Suits 

XL. My Character—New Ideas—Predictions Fulfilled