DAWKINS, Richard The God Delusion

INSCRIBED TO THE CHAIRMAN OF FOYLE'S

8vo., black boards lettered in gilt to spine with publisher’s device to foot; bright red endpapers; together in the unclipped pictorial dustwrapper (£20.00 to front flap); illustrated by Norma Bar; pp. [xi], 2-406; essentially a fine copy in a very near fine dustwrapper, with just a little creasing along the folds. 

First edition. This a presentation copy, inscribed to Christopher Foyle, the chairman of Foyles Bookshop in London, and signed by Dawkins beneath. 

One of the most popular, and certainly most controversial works by the  evolutionary biologist, zoologist, science communicator, atheist activist, and author Richard Dawkins. Nicknamed ‘Darwin's rottweiller’, Dawkins had previously written a series of books on the subject of evolutionary biology - most famously The Selfish Gene (1976), The Extended Phenotype (1982) and The Blind Watchmaker (1986) - before he began to turn to the subject of God and religion. Raised a Christian, Dawkins referred to his childhood as ‘a normal Anglican upbringing’ until his teenage years, when he began to develop an interest in evolutionary theory and has since self-identified as an atheist. Famously considering faith to be "one of the world's great evils", he argues in The God Delusion that the belief in a personal God should be considered delusional insanity. Repeatedly advised against publishing such a book, Bantam Press finally agreed to release the work in the early 2000s. Unsurprisingly, it was the subject of much critical acclaim, praised by some and deeply criticised by others, both Christian and atheist, for its lack of research. A series of sold-out public debates also followed. The book has since been translated into over thirty five languages. 

“Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”

SKU: 1800277