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Darwin Correspondence Project

To Ernst Krause   10 November 1879

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)

Nov. 10th 1879

My dear Sir

I write a line to thank you for your note & to say that I have heard from Murray that the Autotype Coy had printed off only a few copies, so that the loss will not be great.— Murray charges only what the Autotype Coy. charge the public, so he makes no profit & it is quite fair that he shd. insist on prepayment.—1 An Italian publisher never paid for the cliches of my Variation under Domestication, & he wd. have lost the whole sum, had I not taken the loss on my own shoulders.2

I was when I wrote rather angry, as I had taken the responsibility of Murray giving the order to the Autotype Coy, but it is all over now. I will send you a copy of the English Edit. of the Life, as soon as it appears, & I do not know why it has not already appeared.3

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Footnotes

See letter to Ernst Krause, 4 November 1879 and n. 1. CD had paid John Murray (1808–92) in advance for photographs produced by the Autotype Company of the frontispiece of Erasmus Darwin for the German edition; however, the German publisher Karl Alberts had cancelled the order. No letter from Murray on this subject has been found.
The publisher Carlo Vincenzi, who had taken over production of the Italian translation of Variation from a previous firm, failed to pay for stereotypes of the illustrations (see Correspondence vol. 23, letter from R. F. Cooke, 26 May 1875); the Italian translation was never published.
Erasmus Darwin was published around the middle of November 1879; CD started receiving thanks for presentation copies about 11 November (see letter from J. S. Burdon Sanderson, [11 November 1879]).

Summary

Only a few copies of the photographs [for German edition of Erasmus Darwin] had been printed, so loss will not be great. CD was rather angry when he wrote [12291] "but it is all over now".

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12304
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Ernst Ludwig (Ernst) Krause
Sent from
Down
Source of text
The Huntington Library (HM 36196)
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12304,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12304.xml

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