To Chauncey Wright 17 July [1871]¹

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

July 17^th

My dear Sir

This is a P.S. to my last letter. I have been looking over your Review again & it seems to me & others so excellent, that, if I receive your permission with a Title, I will republish it, notwithstanding that I am assured pamphlets on literary or scientific subjects never will sell in England.²

I can send copies to all Scientific Journals,—to all the Sc. Soc. & the Clubs & to all private individuals, whom I can think of as at all caring for such subjects. Anyhow I can thus distribute some 200 copies.

So I hope for your permission, for a Title & the M.S. returned, whether or no you think the last little discussion can be made rather clearer.—³ I will then at once get it printed, & attack my publisher (Murray) who, I know, will do all he can to avoid publishing it— He tells me he has made a rule never to publish pamphlets.—⁴

Two of my sons start on the 29^th inst. for short Tour in the States, & I believe that you will allow them to call on you, when towards the close of their tour they come to Boston.⁵

In Haste | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

How many copies, if the Review is printed here, shall I send you?

Footnotes

1

The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to Chauncey Wright, 13 and 14 July [1871].

2

In his letter to Wright of 13 and 14 July [1871], CD had suggested reprinting Wright’s review of St George Jackson Mivart’s On the genesis of species as a pamphlet (Wright 1871a, Mivart 1871a). CD had it reprinted under the title Darwinism: being an examination of Mr. St. George Mivart’s ‘Genesis of species’ (Wright 1871b).

3

See letter to Chauncey Wright, 13 and 14 July [1871] and n. 6.

4

John Murray did break his rule and publish Wright’s pamphlet; see letter from R. F. Cooke, 18 August 1871.

5

CD refers to George Howard and Francis Darwin. See letter to Asa Gray, 16 July [1871] and n. 2.