An Essay on the Principle of Population
The 1798 treatise arguing population growth outruns subsistence, published anonymously. Its author, T. R. Malthus, put his name to the expanded 1803 second edition.
- Original byline
- Anonymous
- Published
- 1798
- Form
- Treatises
- Authorship
- Revealed: Thomas Robert Malthus
- Attribution source
- Wikidata P50 (Q851988); Wikipedia note
- Revealed
- 1803, second edition published under the author's name
- Reason for anonymity
- Unrecorded
- Copyright
- Public domain
- Reference
- Wikipedia · Wikidata
The authorship story
An Essay on the Principle of Population appeared anonymously in 1798, arguing that population increases geometrically while subsistence grows arithmetically, with famine and misery as the check. The argument was immediately controversial, aimed as it was against the utopian optimism of Godwin and Condorcet. The author was the clergyman and economist Thomas Robert Malthus, who acknowledged the work when the much enlarged second edition of 1803 appeared under his name. The anonymity lasted five years and ended by the author's own hand, a common pattern for contentious treatises of the period.
Questions readers ask
Who wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population?
An Essay on the Principle of Population was published anonymously and is documented as the work of Thomas Robert Malthus. The authorship became public in 1803 (second edition published under the author's name). Source: Wikidata P50 (Q851988); Wikipedia note.
Can I read An Essay on the Principle of Population for free?
Yes. An Essay on the Principle of Population is in the public domain and the full text is free to read at the Internet Archive.
When was An Essay on the Principle of Population published?
An Essay on the Principle of Population was published in 1798 without an author’s name.
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