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Summary
Offers the German rights of Variation if J. V. Carus is prepared to translate it.
Transcription
Dear Sir
I have received the press proof of my new book, which will probably be entitled The V. of A. & P. under D. It will be in 2 Vols 8vo. with 43 wood-blocks.—f2 Whether so large a work will be worth translating into German I cannot judge. I have had two applications from G. publishers for clean sheets for translation, & one offer on payment.f3 But I would give up any claim for payment if I could get a good translator. Do you continue to wish to bring out a translation, & could you persuade Prof. V. C. to translate the work?f4 If you inform me that he will translate it, subject to your resolving to have a Translation, I would send you clean sheets as soon as half-a dozen have been printed off. But please to observe on Prof V. Carus being the translator You would have to negotiate with Mr Murray for stereotypes of the wood-blocks. I shd wish for an answer before much of the work is printed so that if you decline I might offer early sheets to the other applicants.—
Hoping that my offer may interest you, I remain, Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | C. D.—
Footnotes
- f1
- The date is established by the reference to this letter in the letter from E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 22 March 1867.
- f2
- CD refers to Variation.
- f3
- CD had received an offer to translate Variation from Rudolf Oldenburg, the business manager for the Munich branch of the firm J. G. Cotta’schen Buchhandlung (Bosl ed. 1983; see Correspondence vol. 14, letter from Rudolf Oldenbourg, 28 October 1866). More recently, CD’s publisher, John Murray, had received an offer from a publisher in Jena (see letter from John Murray, 19 March [1867] and n. 5).
- f4
- Julius Victor Carus had recently completed the German translation of the fourth edition of Origin (Bronn and Carus trans. 1867; see letter to J. V. Carus, 17 February [1867]).