From Albert Günther [after 13 January 1870]1
Private
My dear Sir
I am very glad to hear that you are pleased with the proofs; I suppose you will have the remainder in a week or two, & I am looking forward for the appearance of your work with great impatience.2
You are very kind in asking after my boy; indeed, I should have added a line about him in my last note, only I thought you had to think about so many things that I would not intrude upon you with my domestic affairs.3
Shortly after I had seen you my solicitor informed me that the Counsel of the Respondents finding their case unjustifiable, had refused to go on with it. Consequently the child had to be given up, & the Court dispensing with my personal appearance, simply found the respondents liable into costs
It so happened that after the case had been settled, it came out that the same man who refused me my child, had persuaded my poor wife a few hours before her death behind my back, to ask me to send the child to Scotland! However, enough of it; the mere thought of such conduct makes me still very bitter. I have the comfort to know that there was no guile in my wife, & I am justified in forgetting her relations.4
The boy is a fine strong child, doing very well under the faithful care of my mother,5 & being a source of great comfort to me. Fathers, they say, are talkative about their youngsters; therefore I will not expose myself; there is nothing extraordinary about the boy except that he is born on the anniversary of the death of Cuvier6
Yours faithfully | AG.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Summary
Is glad CD likes the proofs; looks forward to the appearance of his work.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7078
- From
- Albrecht Carl Ludwig Gotthilf (Albert) Günther
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- unstated
- Source of text
- DAR 165: 244
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7078,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7078.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 18