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From John Murray   25 September [1873]1

50, Albemarle St. | W.

Sept. 25th.

Dear Mr Darwin

I thank you for sending me your Cheque & I enclose stamped receipt for it.2 Also I enclose Statement of the Sales of your “Orchids” made up to the present time showing a balance of £36.19.6 coming to you as your share of half profits for wch amount you will find my Cheque within—

Annexed to this account is a statement of the Stocks of your different works—3

I have not settled with you for the actual Edition of Origin of Species because not 300 copies have yet been sold out of 2000 printed—4

As for Expression I rashly printed 2000 copies—in the full tide of success when the book was selling like wild fire. At that very time came a sudden stagnation—& not only have I not yet touched the Edn but I have 404 copies left out of the 7000 previously printed & paid for. We must have patience— My Sale in Nov may alter the state of affairs

I remain My Dear Sir | Yours very sincerely | John Murray

I shall be prepared for your new works notwithstanding

Chas Darwin Esq

[Enclosure]

Dr Darwin on Orchids Cr
1862 1862
June To Printing 1500 No 89 1 9 June By 1500 Copies
" 4814 Reams paper 51 17 4 5 Stats Hall5
" Binding 1000 Copies 30 4 2 12 Allowed Author
" Sowerby.6 Illustrations 21 – – 30 Reviews
" Cooper7 do 53 2 – 732 685 on Hand June 1862
" Advertising 27 4 – 768 Sold viz
" Comn to agents 2 8 - 358 Trade 25 as 24 6/ 103 4 –
410 do " " 6/5 126 8 2
1862 768
June By Balance deficiency 45 5 1
274 17 3 274 17 3
1862
June To Balance deficiency 45 5 1 June By 685 on hand
Sep " Electros 3 6 – 4 Reviews
1867
June " Binding 100 Copies 3 – 5 520 516 On Hand June 1867
" Advertising 20 10 – 165 Sold viz
52 Trade 25 as 24 6/ 15 – –
113 do " " 6/5 34 19 5
1867 165
June By Balance deficiency 22 2 1
72 1 6 72 1 6
1867
June To balance defy 22 2 1 June June By 516 on hand
Carried over
Dr Darwin on Orchids Cr
1867 1867
June To Balance deficiency 22 2 1 June By 516 on hand
1869
June " Electros 2 10 – 1 Author in Sheets
1873
June " Advertising 6 years 22 – – 82 81 On Hand June 1873
" Binding 400 Copies 12 1 8 434 Sold viz
" Comn allowd agents – 12 2 252 Trade 25 as 24 6/ 72 12 –
" Balance profit 73 19 – 182 do " " 6/5 56 2 11
434
1869
May By Reinwald for 4 10 –
a Set of Electros8 – – –
133 4 11 133 4 11
1873
June By 81 on hand
" Author’s 13 Profit 36 19 6
Stocks on Hand. June 30. 1873

* 1716 “Origin of species” 7/6 Edition 2000 No printed March 1873 for which Author has not yet been paid 26 “Variations Animals” &c 1250 No printed in 1868 75 “Man” 1000 No " 1871 2404 “Emotions” 7000 No printed Decr 1872 for which Author was paid £1050— 2000 No printed 1873 for which Author has not yet been paid

* Memm 57 Copies 14/– edition still on Hand

CD annotations

Verso 1st sheet: ‘[‘State’ del] Sale of my Books Sept 25 1873.—’ red crayon
Verso 2d sheet: ‘Number of all my publications Sept. 1873’ red crayon
Stocks on Hand: ‘26’, ‘75’, ‘2404’ underl red crayon

Footnotes

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to John Murray, 24 September [1873].
2
See letter to John Murray, 24 September [1873] and n. 2. CD was paying for the presentation copies of his works.
3
Murray’s statement for Orchids and the stocks of CD’s other works is in the Darwin Archive–CUL (DAR 210.11: 1).
4
Origin 6th ed. had been published in February 1872 (Freeman 1977).
5
Under the 1842 Copyright Act, four copies of any new work published in the United Kingdom and the British Dominions were to be delivered to an officer of the Stationers’ Company for distribution on demand to the Bodleian Library in Oxford, the ‘Public Library’ (now the University Library) in Cambridge, the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh, and the library of Trinity College, Dublin. A copy was also to be delivered to the British Museum in London. See Seville 1999, pp. 233, 262.
7
Cooper has not been identified.
8
Charles-Ferdinand Reinwald was the publisher of the French translation of Orchids (Rérolle trans. 1870). Electros: electrotypes of the illustrations.

Bibliography

Freeman, Richard Broke. 1977. The works of Charles Darwin: an annotated bibliographical handlist. 2d edition. Folkestone, Kent: William Dawson & Sons. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, Shoe String Press.

Orchids: On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects, and on the good effects of intercrossing. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1862.

Origin 6th ed.: The origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 6th edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1872.

Seville, Catherine. 1999. Literary copyright reform in early Victorian England: the framing of the 1842 Copyright Act. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Summary

Acknowledges CD’s cheque.

Sends CD cheque for profits on Orchids and a statement of stock on hand of CD’s works [missing].

Origin and Expression sales are stagnant.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-9071
From
John Murray
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
London, Albemarle St, 50
Source of text
DAR 171: 437, DAR 210.11: 1
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9071,” accessed on 5 June 2025, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9071.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 21

letter

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