Wikipedia

R. B. Freeman

Richard Broke Freeman(1 April 1915 – 1 September 1986) was azoologist,historian of zoology, bibliographer ofnatural historyandbook collector.[1]Known professionally as R. B. Freeman, he compiled comprehensive reference works onCharles Darwin[2]and onP. H. Gosse.[3]He was “a meticulous scholar”[2]and a “brilliant bibliographer” who showed “a genuine modesty about his great erudition.”[4]"It is darkly rumored among antiquarian booksellers that R. B. Freeman once missed a completely unrecorded and absurdly rare 1859 second issue of the first edition ofThe Origin of Species",a reviewer wrote in theTimes Literary Supplement,"but this is also said to be the only mistake he has made during a lifetime of persistent scholarship and imaginative detective work in libraries, bookshops, sale-rooms, the attics of country houses and the trunks of the great-aunts of great men."[5]

R. B. Freeman
Freeman in London, 1974.
Born(1915-04-01)1 April 1915
London, England
Died1 September 1986(1986-09-01)(aged 71)
London, England
NationalityBritish
Alma materMagdalen College, Oxford
Known forThe Works of Charles Darwin: An Annotated Bibliographical Handlist;Charles Darwin: A Companion;Philip Henry Gosse: A Bibliography
Scientific career
FieldsZoology,natural history,bibliography
InstitutionsUniversity College London

Life

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Freeman was born in London. Educated atMagdalen College, Oxford(1935–38), he received his BA in 1938 (First Class honours in Zoology) and MA in 1950. He was reading for his doctor of philosophy degree with a SeniorDemyshipat Magdalen whenWorld War IIbegan. From 1939 to 1946, he was employed in pest control by theMinistry of Agriculture and Fisheriesat theBureau of Animal Populationin Oxford.[4]He rose to the rank of Major with the 111th Rocket Anti-Aircraft Battery, 101st OxfordHome Guardin 1944,[6]and was awarded anMBEfor meritorious service.[7]

Freeman was married to Dr. Mary Whitear,[8]a zoologist at theUniversity of London,[9]and they had two sons. In 1946, he was appointed Lecturer in Zoology atUniversity College London,and from 1951 to his retirement in 1982, he was University Reader inTaxonomy.At the time of his death from a sudden heart attack, he was Emeritus Reader.[4]

Natural history bibliographies and collections

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Through regular contacts with booksellers (antiquarian and otherwise), by attending auctions (including atSotheby's), visiting libraries, correspondence with scholars, his own studies, and through buying trips to the west country in England and elsewhere, Freeman built up an immense first-hand knowledge of his subjects. In the process, he also accumulated an imposing library ofDarwinand natural history works.[10]In 1967, Freeman was persuaded by David Esplin, an associate librarian at theUniversity of Toronto,to sell to that institution his Darwin collection – which included some 140 copies ofThe Origin of Species.[11]That purchase “became the core of what is now the most extensive collection of the published works of Darwin in the world.”[12]

Darwin

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Freeman calledThe Works of Charles Darwin: An Annotated Bibliographical Handlisthis first attempt to list “all the editions and issues [of works by Charles Darwin] which I have seen, or seen reliably recorded" no more than "a list" which is "far from complete."[13]That 1965 work contained some 541 items; 12 years later, a second edition numbered 1,805 entries, though it maintained the same title.[14]Citing another scholar's assertion that “it would be as hopeless a task to search out all the reprints [of Darwin’sOrigin of Species] as it would be to discover those of its great – and almost as shattering – coeval,The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám",Freeman wrote: “I have tried to do just that for all of Darwin’s works.”[15]

The second revised edition ofThe Works of Charles Darwinwas “virtually a new book”[16]and “a required purchase for students of Darwin and of thehistory of evolutionary biologygenerally” which “stands second only to a facsimile of the first edition ofThe Origin of Species.”[17]

A "remarkable"[4]reader's guide to "Darwin's life, his ancestry, collaterals and descendants, his friends and a few enemies, and his scientific correspondents",Charles Darwin: A Companionappeared in 1978, and included information about what Darwin wrote and thought on politics and society.[18]By permission of Freeman's wife, Dr. Mary Whitear, an expanded edition, which included Freeman's own unpublished additions and corrections (plus that of others), went online in 2007.[19]

British Natural History Books

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In 1980, Freeman publishedBritish Natural History Books 1495–1900: A Handlist,which "any self-respecting library and every calculating collector should possess."[5]The work listed some 4,206 items.[5]

Philip Henry Gosse and Emily Gosse

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In 1972, theUniversity of Toronto Libraryoffered to buy Freeman'sGosseand natural history collection of some 1,000 volumes, a transaction completed in 1974.[20]In 1980, Freeman publishedPhilip Henry Gosse: A Bibliography(co-authored with Douglas Wertheimer).[3]With 466 entries, the book superseded Peter Stageman's privately printed, limited-focus 1955A Bibliography of the First Editions of Philip Henry Gosse, F.R.S.[21]Philip Henry Gosse: A Bibliographywas “an invaluable guide”,[22]one which “professes to be no more than a bibliography” but “the net result is to provide a fascinating account of Gosse’s career.”[23]Another reviewer described the book as an "indispensable tool for studying the sectarian faith and non-Darwinian science of a notable Victorian naturalist."[24]

In 1974, Freeman hadEntomologia Alabamensis,an unpublished manuscript volume of insects ofAlabamadrawn by P.H. Gosse while he lived there in 1838, photographed in color. At the same time, he enlisted K.G.V. Smith to oversee an "Annotated Index to Insects Mentioned in [Gosse's]Letters from Alabama(1859). "That project drew on Smith's expertise and that of 18 others who were also at theBritish Museum of Natural History,as well as two experts from theUS Department of Agriculture.They gave modern scientific names to the insects in Gosse'sLetters from Alabama,co-ordinating those identifications with the illustrations inEntomologia Alabamensis.The project included a bibliography but was never published, and fell from view after Freeman's death.[25]

In 2021, a posthumously-published collaboration with Wertheimer appeared as “Emily Gosse:A Bibliography.” This first-ever attempt at an inventory of the writing of Gosse’s first wife had been completed in 1975 but remained in manuscript. The work was revised by Wertheimer.[26]

Selected works

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Articles

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  • ”Properties of poisons used in rodent control”, in D. Chitty (editor),Control of rats and mice,vol. 1 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1954), pp. 25–146
  • Notes onRobert E. Grant, M.D.and on the Department of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy, University College London(Produced by the Department, 1964)
  • "Charles Darwin on the routes of male humble bees",Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History), Historical Series,Vol. 3, No. 6 (May 1968), pp. 179–189[27]
  • ”Children’s natural history books before Queen Victoria”,History of Education Society BulletinNos. 17–18 (Spring, August 1976), 7–21; 6–34

Books

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References

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  1. ^"Mr Richard Broke Freeman",Archives of Natural History,Vol. I, Part 3, October 1986, p. 338.
  2. ^abJohn van Wyhe,"Preface to the second online edition (2007)",Charles Darwin: A Companion–The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online,November 2007.
  3. ^abR. B. Freeman and Douglas Wertheimer,Philip Henry Gosse: A Bibliography(London: Dawson, 1980).
  4. ^abcdW.A. Smeaton, “Obituary: Richard Broke Freeman”,The British Journal for the History of Sciencevol. 21, March 1988, p. 101.
  5. ^abcRedmond O'Hanlon,review of R. B. Freeman,British Natural History Books 1495–1900: A Handlist,inTimes Literary Supplement,20 February 1981, p. 191.
  6. ^Supplement,London Gazette,15 December 1944, p. 5745.
  7. ^"MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire – Military Division)."Accessed 29 May 2012.
  8. ^R. B. Freeman,Darwin Pedigrees,London, 1984, p. viii.
  9. ^J.S. Alexandrowicz and Mary Whitear,“Receptor elements in the coxal region of Decapoda Crustacea”,Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom,1957, pp. 603–628.
  10. ^R.B. Freeman,The Works of Charles Darwin: An Annotated Bibliographical Handlist(London: Dawsons, 1965), Preface.
  11. ^Richard G. Landon,Notes on Collections of the University of Toronto Library. No 2: Charles Darwin. Species of Origin; a bibliographical exposition of the works of Charles Darwin at the University of Toronto(Toronto: University of Toronto Library, 1971), p. 4.
  12. ^Richard G. Landon, “Case VIII: Charles Darwin”, inDavid G. Esplin: a commemorative exhibition(Toronto:Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library,University of Toronto, 28 March – 11 May 1984), p. 30.
  13. ^Freeman,The Works of Charles Darwin: An Annotated Bibliographical Handlist,p. ix.
  14. ^R. B. Freeman,The Works of Charles Darwin: An Annotated Bibliographical Handlist,second edition, revised and enlarged (London: Dawson, 1977).
  15. ^Freeman,The Works of Charles Darwin: An Annotated Bibliographical Handlist,second edition, p. 9.
  16. ^H.A. Feisenberger, review ofThe Works of Charles Darwin: An Annotated Bibliographical Handlist,second edition, inTimes Literary Supplement,9 December 1977, p. 1455.
  17. ^Sandra Herbert, review ofThe Works of Charles Darwin: An Annotated Bibliographical Handlist,second edition, inIsis,Vol. 69, June 1978, pp. 305–6.
  18. ^R. B. Freeman,Charles Darwin: A Companion(London: Dawson, 1978), p. 7.
  19. ^R.B. Freeman,Charles Darwin: A Companion(Online edition, 2007),compiled by Sue Asscher and edited by John van Wyhe, p.7.
  20. ^Elizabeth Hulse, "A Victorian Natural History Collection",Victorian Studies Association Newsletter(Ontario), Number 14, November 1974, pp. 19–21.
  21. ^Peter Stageman,A Bibliography of the First Editions of Philip Henry Gosse, F.R.S.(Cambridge: Golden Head Press, Ltd., 1955), 480 copies in commerce.
  22. ^P.J. Miller, review ofPhilip Henry Gosse: A Bibliography,inArchives of Natural History,Vol. 10, April 1981, p. 179.
  23. ^Anthony Payne, “Gosse v. Darwin”, review ofPhilip Henry Gosse: A BibliographyandBritish Natural History Books 1495–1900,inAntiquarian Book Monthly Review,Vol. 8, August 1981, p. 310; alsoThe Library,6th series, Vol. 2, 1980, pp. 478–9.
  24. ^James R. Moore,review ofPhilip Henry Gosse: A Bibliography,inIsis,Vol. 72, June 1981, pp. 288–9.
  25. ^Douglas Wertheimer,Philip Henry Gosse: Science and Revelation in the Crucible,University of Toronto, PhD thesis, 1977, pp. 87, 103fn139. In 2010, Gary R. Mullen and Taylor D. Littleton reproduced the Alabama manuscript in color asPhilip Henry Gosse: Science and Art inLetters from AlabamaandEntomologia Alabamensis (Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press, 2010). There is no indication that the authors were aware of Freeman’s project.
  26. ^R. B. Freeman and Douglas Wertheimer, “Emily Gosse: A Bibliography,”Brethren Historical Review 17,2021, pp. 25-78. (ISSN1755-9383).
  27. ^This is a second edition of the English translation which first appeared in R. B. Freeman,The Works of Charles Darwin: An Annotated Bibliographical Handlist(1965), pp. 70–3. A reviewer referred to this Darwin item as “a precious pearl” hidden in the “delicate bibliographical flesh” of Freeman’s book ( “Where the Bee Buzzes”,Times Literary Supplement,15 July 1965, p. 604.)
  28. ^Review by Eric Korn,Times Literary Supplement,4 November 1988, p. 1231.
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