Isabelle Wight Duncan

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Isabelle Duncan (2 July 1812 – 26 December 1878) was a British writer who tried to explain scientific ideas using stories from the Bible. She wrote Pre-Adamite Man: or, the story of our old planet & its inhabitants, told by Scripture & science. The book argued that a race of people lived before Adam and explained the origin of angels. It mixed recent geology with the Genesis accounts, suggesting that Genesis chapter 1 describes a pre-Adamite population and Genesis chapter 2 presents the traditional creation story.

The book appeared soon after Darwin published On the Origin of Species, and after evidence that mammoths and humans lived at the same time. The early editions did not credit her name, so many thought the book was written by a man. Later editions were published under her name. She was married to George John Craig Duncan, a minister, who helped with theology and illustrations. They moved to London and had nine children. Isabelle Duncan died in Bayswater, London.