Some sources have referred to Darwin as being Wallaces “mentor.” Does this word accurately reflect the nature of their relationship?
I think not. It would probably be more accurate to describe Darwin as being Wallace’s “colleague” and “inspiration.” Although Wallace had for many years been aware of (and admired) Darwin’s book on the latter’s around-the-world H.M.S. Beagle travels, the two had met only once (and quite briefly at that) before Wallace’s return to England in 1862 from the Malay Archipelago. They had, however, struck up a professional correspondence in the two years preceding Wallace’s discovery of natural selection in 1858, and Wallace knew that Darwin was generally interested in “the species question.” After 1862, when they had gotten to know one another personally, the relationship in both directions was of friend and colleague (regardless of Darwin’s greater age). Certainly, there can be no doubt that Wallace had the highest regard for Darwin’s creative and intellectual faculties, but this did not stop Wallace from disagreeing with him whenever he saw fit. Neither did such disagreements stop Wallace
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