The Missing Ink

Darwin’s Bluff: The Mystery of the Book Darwin Never Finished by Robert F. Shedinger

When a seasoned poker player bluffs, he never shows his cards unless another player calls his bluff. Likewise, Charles Darwin never publicly showed his cards, in this case, his “big book” which would confirm his magnum opus, The Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection. Now along comes Robert F. Shedinger, who demonstrates that Darwin’s promised confirmation of his theory was a bluff.

And herein lies the remarkable character of Darwin’s Bluff, based as it is on Shedinger’s deep dive into hundreds of letters written by Darwin, which makes the book read much like a novel with a running commentary by the protagonist, in this case, Charles Darwin.

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