skip to content
Home

Darwin Correspondence Project

From John Murray   18 March [1871]1

50, Albemarle St. | W.

Mar 18

My Dear Sir

The second Edition of your “Descent”—is published this day. It consists of 2000 copies—2

I shall be happy to give you for it Eight Hundred Guineas—of wch 200 Gs payable at once by cheque & 600 by note of hand at six months from this date—3 Please let me know if this proposal is satisfactory to you—

I conclude you have seen Wallace’s review in Academy4

I remain My Dear Sir | your obliged & faithful | John Murray

Chas Darwin Esqr

CD annotations

Top of letter: ‘£14.70 [‘£’ above ‘14.70’]5 | (Non-conform & other Papers from Catholic Pap—Tablet) | Back’ pencil

Footnotes

1
The year is established by the reference to the second printing of Descent, which was made in March 1871, and the review in the Academy (see n. 4, below).
2
Murray refers to the second printing of Descent (see Freeman 1977); the second edition was not published until 1874.
3
CD’s Account books–banking account (Down House MS), records the receipt of £210 from Murray on 21 March 1871 and of £630 on 18 September 1871.
4
Murray refers to Alfred Russel Wallace and his review of Descent (Wallace 1871a).
5
CD evidently calculated the total sum he had made on Descent to this point; that is, £1470. CD had received £630 for the first printing of Descent (CD’s Account books–banking account (Down House MS)).

Bibliography

Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.

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.

Summary

Second "edition" [of Descent] published this day. Offers CD 800 guineas.

Mentions Wallace’s review in Academy.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-7597
From
John Murray
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
London, Albemarle St, 50
Source of text
DAR 171: 392
Physical description
ALS 1p †

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7597,” accessed on 26 September 2022, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7597.xml

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

letter

Darwin Correspondence Project
darwin@lib.cam.ac.uk

© University of Cambridge 2022

Copyright declaration

Privacy policy

Website by Surface Impression

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge