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Darwin Correspondence Project

From R. F. Cooke   20 July 1880

50A, Albemarle Street, London. W.

July 20 1880

My dear Sir

With the additional information which you have given regarding your new work, the prospect is rather more gloomy.1

I have put down the cost of Illustrations as £150—& have also added a little more to the cost of corrections & the result is that the whole expense of 1000 Copies comes to £450.

If 1000 copies are printed & sold, the retail price being fixed at 14s/- the produce will be £456.

Where is the profit for Author or publisher?

What is to be done? Can we venture to print 250 more, or can we raise the price to 16/-2

We are fairly puzzled

Yours faithfully | Robt. Cooke

Chas. Darwin Esq

Footnotes

See letter to R. F. Cooke, 16 July 1880 and n. 3. Cooke had failed to take into account the cost of woodcuts for Movement in plants.
Cooke had proposed a cost of 15s. but CD had suggested 14s. (see letter to R. F. Cooke, 16 July 1880 and n. 5).

Bibliography

Movement in plants: The power of movement in plants. By Charles Darwin. Assisted by Francis Darwin. London: John Murray. 1880.

Summary

RC estimates that 1000 copies of Movement in plants if sold at 14s would produce a profit of £6. Might more be printed, or the price raised?

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12664
From
Robert Francis Cooke; John Murray
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
London, Albemarle St, 50a
Source of text
DAR 171: 507
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12664,” accessed on 25 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12664.xml

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