Westermarck, Edward Alexander (1862-1939). Two Autograph Letters Signed‚ Discussing Publication of a Chapter from his Latest Book, Apparently, “The Origin and Development of Moral Ideas” (London, 1906-1908, 2 vols.), and Mentioning His Recent Return from Morocco. Two letters: London‚ 10 October 1908; Helsingfors‚ 26 April 1909.

Each small octavo (ca. 17,5x11 cm); black ink on watermarked laid paper. In all 6 pp. Of text in English. Mild fold marks, otherwise near fine letters.

Two letters to fellow scientists from a Finnish philosopher and sociologist Edward Alexander Westermarck, who at the time worked as a professor of sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science (1907-1931), and a professor of practical philosophy at the University of Helsinki (1906-1918). In the first letter Westermarck notes that he has just returned from Morocco and discusses his recent publication: “The article in Sexual Problems is a translation of the chapter in my book (which will be out at the end of this month or in the beginning of November), but I could not tell whether the translator has given all the footnotes. I thank you for your Chronique and for your kind appreciation of my article with contribution to the subject. The material is of course extremely defective, and the score of my work compelled me to be brief <…>. P.S. There is no foundation for the statement made by the editor of Sexual Problems that I consider the chapter in question to be the most important part of my book. I cannot understand from where he has got this notion.” This letter most likely refers to Westermarck’s “The Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas” (London, 1906-08, 2 vols.). The second letter states that Westermarck is in Helsinki and thus is not able meet his correspondent in London.

“Edvard Alexander Westermarck was a Finnish philosopher and sociologist. Among other subjects, he studied exogamy and the incest taboo. The phenomenon of reverse sexual imprinting (when two people live in close domestic proximity during the first few years in the life of either one, both are desensitized to later close sexual attraction), now known as the Westermarck effect, was first formally described by him in his book The History of Human Marriage (1891). He has been described as "first Darwinian sociologist " or "the first sociobiologist. " He helped found academic sociology in the United Kingdom, becoming the first professor of sociology (with Leonard Trelawny Hobhouse) in 1907 in the University of London” (Wikipedia).