Anne Darwin

From Free net encyclopedia

---

Current revision

Image:Annie Darwin.jpg Anne Elizabeth "Annie" Darwin (2 March 1841–22 April 1851) was the second child and eldest daughter of Charles and Emma Darwin. According to biographers, she was a delightful child who brought much happiness to her parents. Eminent Darwin scholar E. Janet Browne writes of her:

Anne was .. the apple of her proud father's eye, his favourite child, he confessed to [his friend and cousin William Darwin] Fox. More than any of the other children she treated him with a spontaneous affection that touched him deeply; she liked to smooth his hair and pat his clothes into shape, and was by nature self-absorbedly neat and tidy, cutting out delicate bits of paper to put away in her workbox, threading ribbons, and sewing small things for her dolls and make-believe worlds.

In 1849, Anne caught scarlet fever along with her two sisters and youngest brother, the last dying of the disease, and her health thereafter declined; some authorities believe that she suffered from tuberculosis. Her death at age ten was a terrible blow for both Charles and Emma, and is said by Browne to have driven Darwin to atheism, though Darwin, who had studied to become a pastor as a young man, consistently described himself as an agnostic (see Charles Darwin's views on religion).

Around 2000 Charles Darwin's great-great-grandson Randal Keynes discovered "Annie's Box" containing keepsakes collected by Charles and Emma. He wrote a book with this material.

References

• Keynes, R. Annie's Box. Fourth Estate, London. Review
• Browne, Janet (1995). Charles Darwin: Voyaging. New York: Random House. ISBN 0691026068. (The characterization of Anne Darwin appears on p. 499.)