skip to content
Home

Darwin Correspondence Project

To Smith, Elder & Co.   30 March [1846]

Down Bromley Kent

Monday | March 30th.

Dear Sir

I am much obliged for your note & very clear Agreements, one of which I return signed. I am sorry, (though I hardly expected it) that you can not aid me in my Third Part, which I must publish, as well as I can, by commission with you.—1

It is provoking that the rules of the trade will not permit you to sell the Geolog. Parts at reduced prices,2 for of course putting a new title page, as for a new Edition, would do only for such gentlemen as Mr. Colburn & Co.—3 Whatever it costs my third Part shall be sold at not more s 10. d 6.— I must economise in every possible way, for many engravings are wanted for it—4

Allow me once again to thank you for the uniformly kind attention which I have on every occasion received from you & believe me dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | C. Darwin

Footnotes

1
This refers to South America, which is the third part of the geology of the Beagle voyage. The publication of Zoology had exhausted the government grant of £1000 (see Correspondence vol. 2, letter to A. Y. Spearman, 9 October 1843, n. 1), causing CD and the publisher to subsidise the later work (see South America, p. iii).
2
Under an agreement signed in 1829, publishers and booksellers were obliged to maintain a uniform retail price for each title. See J. J. Barnes 1964, p. 1.
3
For CD’s experience with Henry Colburn see letter to John Murray, 12 April [1845]. Despite CD’s reference to this ‘ungentlemanly’ practice, Smith, Elder & Co. went even further than Colburn in 1851, when unsold copies of Coral reefs, Volcanic islands, and South America were then bound as a single volume and reissued with a new title-page at the greatly reduced price of 10s. 6d. (see Freeman 1977, p. 58).
4
CD’s Account Book (Down House MS) records a number of payments for illustrations for South America, including those of 15 December 1845 and 5 July, 19 August, and 4 and 18 September 1846, totalling £47 13s. In addition, on 10 August 1847 CD paid a lump sum to Smith, Elder & Co. of £61 8s.; on 27 February 1848 he received £5 8s. 4d. from the same firm.

Bibliography

Barnes, James John. 1964. Free trade in books: a study of the London book trade since 1800. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Coral reefs: The structure and distribution of coral reefs. Being the first part of the geology of the voyage of the Beagle, under the command of Capt. FitzRoy RN, during the years 1832 to 1836. By Charles Darwin. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1842.

Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.

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.

South America: Geological observations on South America. Being the third part of the geology of the voyage of the Beagle, under the command of Capt. FitzRoy RN, during the years 1832 to 1836. By Charles Darwin. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1846.

Volcanic islands: Geological observations on the volcanic islands, visited during the voyage of HMS Beagle, together with some brief notices on the geology of Australia and the Cape of Good Hope. Being the second part of the geology of the voyage of the Beagle, under the command of Capt. FitzRoy RN, during the years 1832 to 1836. By Charles Darwin. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1844.

Zoology: The zoology of the voyage of HMS Beagle, under the command of Captain FitzRoy RN, during the years 1832 to 1836. Edited and superintended by Charles Darwin. 5 pts. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1838–43.

Summary

Discusses publication of his book [South America].

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-967
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Smith, Elder & Co
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Archives of the New York Botanical Garden (Charles Finney Cox Collection)
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 967,” accessed on 29 May 2023, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-967.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 3

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