Life of Sir John Lubbock, Lord Avebury

The achievements of the polymath Sir John Lubbock (1834-1913) spanned banking, politics, science and philanthropy. First published in 1914, this two-volume biography by Horace G. Hutchinson (1859-1932) traces Lubbock’s extraordinary life and career. Hutchinson, who knew his subject in later years, paints a highly favourable portrait of Lubbock’s varied accomplishments. Notably, Lubbock became a partner of his father’s bank at twenty-two, a Member of Parliament in 1870, and in 1900 received the title of Baron Avebury. Tutored in natural history by Charles Darwin in his youth, he remained fascinated by evolutionary theory: it influenced his archaeological and anthropological work, including Pre-Historic Times as Illustrated by Ancient Remains (1865) and The Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man (1870), both reissued in the Cambridge Library Collection. Volume 1 covers Lubbock’s early childhood and private education, his introduction to banking, and Darwin’s influence on his passion for science.