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Darwin Correspondence Project

From R. F. Cooke   18 August 1871

50A, Albemarle Street, London. W.

Augt. 18 1871

My dear Sir

In Mr. Murray’s absence, I beg to reply to your letter & say, that altho’ as a rule, we do not publish pamphlets, yet we have made exceptions & I am sure Mr Murray will not object to publishing the one you propose & therefore by all means forward the copy to Messrs. Clowes & Sons.1

We have not printed any more of the “Descent of Man” for there was rather a lull in the sale & out of the last 2000 Copies, on June 30th we had 825 copies left, so that we had given Messrs Clowes permission to distribute the type—but strange to say, a few days afterwards, a fresh demand sprung up & we have sold 200 copies & so I told Clowes to hold their hand for the present.2

I am sorry to hear you have been poorly but hope the rain of last night has both refreshed you & the country.

Mr Murray & family are in Scotland, but return the end of next week3

Yours faithfully | Robt. Cooke

Did you see the review of “Descent” in the Guardian?4

Chas. Darwin Esq

Footnotes

Murray and his wife, Marion, were of Scottish descent (ODNB).
The anonymous review was published in the Anglican weekly journal the Guardian on 2 August 1871, pp. 935–6. There is a copy in DAR 226.2: 82.1.

Bibliography

ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.

Summary

RC is sure Murray would not object to printing the pamphlet [C. Wright’s Darwinism: being an examination of Mr. St. G. J. Mivart’s "Genesis of species"].

After a lull in sales of Descent, a fresh demand warrants keeping type set up. Has CD seen the review of Descent in the Guardian?

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-7909
From
Robert Francis Cooke; John Murray
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
London, Albemarle St, 50a
Source of text
DAR 171: 401
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7909,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7909.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19

letter