To ? 23 October 1880
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | (Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.)
October 23 1880
Dear Sir
I am much obliged for your courteous letter of Oct. 8th.—1 I have no difficulty in answering your questions; but I cannot see how my answers can be of interest to anyone.—
I was born on Feb. 12th. 1809.— On my return home after the voyage of the Beagle, I opened my first note-book for facts bearing on the origin of species in July 1837.2 In June 1842 I wrote a brief sketch of the notions then arrived at; & this was enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of 230 M.S. pages.3 The Origin of Species was published near the close of 1859.—
Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Notebooks: Charles Darwin’s notebooks, 1836–1844. Geology, transmutation of species, metaphysical enquiries. Transcribed and edited by Paul H. Barrett et al. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press for the British Museum (Natural History). 1987.
Summary
Answers correspondent’s questions on his birth date and when he began work on origin of species.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-12771
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Unidentified
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- Jeremy Norman (dealer) (catalogue 69, item 15)
- Physical description
- ALS 2pp C 1p
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12771,” accessed on 28 September 2023, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12771.xml
