skip to content

Darwin Correspondence Project

Search: contains ""

400 Bad Request

Bad Request

Your browser sent a request that this server could not understand.


Apache Server at dcp-public.lib.cam.ac.uk Port 443
Search:
in keywords
15 Items

Darwin in letters, 1878: Movement and sleep

Summary

In 1878, Darwin devoted most of his attention to the movements of plants. He investigated the growth pattern of roots and shoots, studying the function of specific organs in this process. Working closely with his son Francis, Darwin devised a series of…

Matches: 27 hits

  • … Hooker, ‘or as far as I know any scientific man’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 December [1878] ). …
  • … or arched.… Almost all seedlings come up arched’ ( letter to Sophy Wedgwood, 24 March [1878–80] ). …
  • … when he finds out that he missed sensitiveness of apex’ ( letter to Francis Darwin, [11 May 1878] …
  • … substances, Darwin next considered sound. He explained to John Tyndall on 4 December: ‘The day …
  • … Darwin complained. ‘I am ashamed at my blunder’ ( letter to John Tyndall, 22 December [1878] ). …
  • … accursed German language: Sachs is very kind to him’ ( letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 18 June …
  • … have nobody to talk to, about my work, I scribble to you ( letter to Francis Darwin, 7 [July 1878] …
  • … but it is horrid not having you to discuss it with’ ( letter to Francis Darwin, 20 [July 1878] ). …
  • … determine whether they had chlorophyll, Francis reported ( letter from Francis Darwin, [after 7 …
  • … ‘There is one machine we must have’, Francis wrote ( letter from Francis Darwin, [before 17 July …
  • … ‘He seems to me to jump to conclusions rather’ ( letter from Francis Darwin, [before 3 August 1878] …
  • … the pot-plant every day & never the bedded out one’ ( letter from Francis Darwin, [after 7 July …
  • … ‘I have borrowed Cieselski & read him,’ he reported ( letter from Francis Darwin, [22 June 1878 …
  • … books & red-wine which is here the cure for all evils’ ( letter from Francis Darwin, [24 and 25 …
  • … is very sweet & pretty,’ he added a week later ( letter to Francis Darwin, 14 July [1878] ). …
  • … in a booboo, whereas I ought to have said a gee-gee’ ( letter to Francis Darwin, 17 July [1878] ). …
  • … no”’. Darwin shared some of his observations with George John Romanes, who was engaged in his own …
  • … close down on the object, but he will always do so’ ( letter to G. J. Romanes, 20 August [1878] ). …
  • … idiot, a deaf-mute, a monkey & a baby in your house!’ ( letter to G. J. Romanes, 2 September …
  • … that I want to play the part of a thieving wasp’ ( letter from G. J. Romanes, 21 June 1878 ). …
  • … than zoology, where his work had been more controversial ( letter from J.-B. Dumas and Joseph …
  • … me Dr Darwin, the title seems to me quite ridiculous’ ( letter to John Price, 2 April [1878] ). …
  • … of the “imperfection of the Geological Record”’ ( letter from Edmund Mojsisovics von Mojsvár, 28 …
  • … science our atlas would not have come together’ ( letter from Arnold Dodel-Port, 18 June 1878 ). …
  • … or religious prejudice. An engineer in Bohemia addressed his letter to ‘the inspired hermit of Down’ …
  • … in Germany, as if they had been school-boys’ ( letter to Karl von Scherzer, 1 April 1878 ). …
  • … of the sermon from his old friend, the former vicar of Down, John Brodie Innes. Darwin and Innes had …

Rewriting Origin - the later editions

Summary

For such an iconic work, the text of Origin was far from static. It was a living thing that Darwin continued to shape for the rest of his life, refining his ‘one long argument’ through a further five English editions.  Many of his changes were made in…

Matches: 8 hits

  • … buried Darwin under a blizzard of letters (see especially letter to Charles Lyell, 11 October …
  • … getting permission to quote prominently from Kingsley’s letter in the revised summary: A …
  • … sufficiently acknowledged earlier work.  According to a letter to Asa Gray he had yet to start …
  • … an animal’s colour and its immunity to poison (see letter from Jeffries Wyman, [ c . 15] …
  • … hitherto slurred it over. In his Christmas Day letter to his old friend Joseph Hooker, …
  • … to keep costs low, and he was disappointed when the cover price was fixed at 7s/6d .  Even his …
  • … a larger target audience were also made.  Darwin persuaded John Murray to include a glossary of …
  • … of population increase in elephants in response to a letter published in the Athenaeum by a …

Living and fossil cirripedia

Summary

Darwin published four volumes on barnacles, the crustacean sub-class Cirripedia, between 1851 and 1854, two on living species and two on fossil species. Written for a specialist audience, they are among the most challenging and least read of Darwin’s works…

Matches: 5 hits

  • … what he called ‘ this difficult order ’. He wrote to John Edward Gray to request permission to …
  • … year on cirripede anatomy, Darwin wrote a rather reflective letter to his former professor and …
  • … him to be wary of multiplying species; his botany professor John Stevens Henslow had alerted his …
  • … his conclusions about larval-adult homologies in a letter to Dana in December 1853 . …
  • … did not satisfy Darwin, who hired his old school friend John Price to correct the work . By the …

Darwin in letters, 1872: Job done?

Summary

'My career’, Darwin wrote towards the end of 1872, 'is so nearly closed. . .  What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’, and the tenor of his correspondence throughout the year is one of wistful reminiscence, coupled with a keen eye…

Matches: 27 hits

  • … What little more I can do, shall be chiefly new work’ ( letter to Francis Galton, 8 November [1872] …
  • … anything more on 'so difficult a subject, as evolution’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace,  27 July …
  • … to spread my views’, he wrote to his publisher, John Murray, on 30 January , shortly after …
  • … and despite Darwin’s best efforts, set the final price at 7 s.  6 d.  ( letter from R. F. Cooke …
  • … condition as I can make it’, he wrote to the translator ( letter to J. J. Moulinié, 23 September …
  • … translation remained unpublished at the end of the year ( letter from C.-F. Reinwald, 23 November …
  • … to the comparative anatomist St George Jackson Mivart ( letter to St G. J. Mivart,  11 January …
  • … comparison of Whale  & duck  most beautiful’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 3 March 1872 ) …
  • … a person as I am made to appear’, complained Darwin ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 5 January 1872 ). …
  • … Darwin would renounce `fundamental intellectual errors’ ( letter from St G. J. Mivart, 6 January …
  • … was silly enough to think he felt friendly towards me’ ( letter to St G. J. Mivart, 8 January [1872 …
  • … hoping for reconciliation, if only `in another world’ ( letter from St G. J. Mivart,  10 January …
  • … have been ungracious in him not to thank Mivart for his letter.  He promised to send a copy of the …
  • … partly in mind, `chiefly perhaps because I do it badly’ ( letter to A. R. Wallace, 3 August [1872] …
  • … Darwinism is to be the theme. Surely the world moves!’ ( letter from Mary Treat, 13 December 1872 …
  • … to find that Weismann accepted it at least in part ( letter to August Weismann, 5 April 1872 ). ‘I …
  • … few naturalists in England seem inclined to believe it’ ( letter to Herman Müller, [before 5 May …
  • … reached the buzzing place where I myself was standing’ ( letter to Hermann Müller, [before 5 May …
  • … ‘as for myself it is dreadful doing nothing’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 22 October [1872] ). He was …
  • … Hooker’s cause was taken up by his friends, in particular John Lubbock and John Tyndall, as one …
  • … to Gladstone a week later ( enclosure to letter from John Lubbock to W. E. Gladstone, 20 June 1872 …
  • … photographic plates with his overseas publishers, and with John Murray’s assistant, the excitable …
  • … London Heliotype Company, and miscommunication about the price and the difficulty of estimating the …
  • … of the booksellers, encouraged an originally cautious John Murray to gamble on the book’s success: & …
  • … attractive dishes in his `Literary Banquet’ (letters from John Murray, 6 November [1872] and 9 …
  • … to supply comparative observations, and Darwin’s protégé John Scott, now employed as a curator in …
  • … a copy of  Expression  to another old Cambridge friend, John Maurice Herbert, who when they were …

Darwin in letters, 1868: Studying sex

Summary

The quantity of Darwin’s correspondence increased dramatically in 1868 due largely to his ever-widening research on human evolution and sexual selection.Darwin’s theory of sexual selection as applied to human descent led him to investigate aspects of the…

Matches: 26 hits

  • … March 1868, Darwin wrote to the entomologist and accountant John Jenner Weir, ‘If any man wants to …
  • … in satisfying female preference in the mating process. In a letter to Alfred Russel Wallace in 1864, …
  • … of changing the races of man’ (Correspondence vol. 12, letter to A. R. Wallace, 28 [May 1864] ). …
  • … book would take the form of a ‘short essay’ on man ( letter to Ernst Haeckel, 3 July 1868 ). But …
  • … as well say, he would drink a little and not too much’ ( letter to Albert Günther, 15 May [1868] ) …
  • … domestication . Having been advertised by the publisher John Murray as early as 1865, the two …
  • … would be a great loss to the Book’. But Darwin’s angry letter to Murray crossed one from Dallas to …
  • … of labour to remuneration I shall look rather blank’ ( letter from W. S. Dallas, 8 January 1868 ). …
  • … if I try to read a few pages feel fairly nauseated’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 3 February [1868] ). …
  • … reviews. On 7 August 1868 , he wrote him a lengthy letter from the Isle of Wight on the formation …
  • … profound contempt of me. I feel convinced it is by Owen’. John Edward Gray, a colleague of Richard …
  • … would strike me in the face, but not behind my back’ ( letter to John Murray, 25 February [1868] ) …
  • … ignorant article… . It is a disgrace to the paper’ ( letter from A. R. Wallace, 24 February [1868] …
  • … ‘he is a scamp & I begin to think a veritable ass’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 1 September [1868] …
  • … wrote of the colour of duck claws on 17 April 1868 . The letter was addressed to ‘the Rev d  C. …
  • … proved very fruitful. On 1 May , Darwin received a letter from George Cupples, who was encouraged …
  • … with the enthusiastic breeder, who apologised in a letter of 11–13 May 1868 for his ‘voluminuous …
  • … of science On 27 February , Darwin sent a letter of thanks to the naturalist and …
  • … he later added, ‘for it is clear that I have none’ ( letter to J. J. Weir, 30 May [1868] ). …
  • … to various classes, a dim ray of light may be gained’ ( letter to H. T. Stainton, 21 February [1868 …
  • … as well as of ‘victorious males getting wives’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 25 February [1868] ). …
  • … depends on the actions of the female’, and of rats, John Bush observed on 30 March that two …
  • … the whole System is sustained.’ The former Down clergyman, John Brodie Innes, passed easily over …
  • letter to J. B. Innes, 1 December 1868 ), his replacement, John Warburton Robinson, proved no …
  • … and joy. Satisfaction in one’s children, Darwin wrote to John Price on 26 November , was ‘the …
  • … poets, and men of science, including Adam Sedgwick, John Stevens Henslow, and William Jackson Hooker …

John Murray

Summary

Darwin's most famous book On the origin of species by means of natural selection (Origin) was published on 22 November 1859. The publisher was John Murray, who specialised in non-fiction, particularly politics, travel and science, and had published…

Matches: 20 hits

  • … was published on 22 November 1859. The publisher was John Murray, who specialised in non-fiction, …
  • … series of guides and also published travel books. Successive John Murrays ran the publishing house; …
  • … University Library  a similar number of letters from John Murray and Robert Cooke, his cousin and …
  • … end of 1845, Darwin was not happy with Colburn’s terms ( Letter 856 ). Instead he asked his friend …
  • … had proved to be a scientific best-seller for the second John Murray, to open negotiations with his …
  • … have transacted the business with me’ (27 August [1845] Letter 908 ). Thus began the business …
  • … Navy: and adapted for travellers in general  edited by John Herschel, but there was an error at …
  • … copies some pages in Darwin’s chapter were transposed ( Letter 1244 ). Darwin was anxious lest an …
  • … & make the poor workman some present’ (12 June [1849] Letter 1245 ). Darwin’s next …
  • … his ‘big species book’; on 18 June 1858, he received a letter from Alfred Russel Wallace with the …
  • … . Again he asked Lyell to act as his intermediary with John Murray ( Letter 2437 ), who, without …
  • … not repent of having undertaken it’ (15 October [1859] Letter 2506 ). Murray decided on a retail …
  • … proud at the appearance of my child’ ([3 November 1859] Letter 2514 ). In the event, all Murray’s …
  • … – and a second edition was immediately called for ( Letter 2549 ). In the end Murray paid Darwin …
  • … had paid Darwin profits of nearly £3000. The third John Murray made a successful business …
  • … (Variation ), but work progressed slowly ( Letter 3078 ); meanwhile in 1862 Murray published  On …
  • … Murray only offered Darwin half profits for this title ( Letter 3261 ); it was never a best-seller …
  • … ). Darwin’s next publishing project with John Murray in 1869 was a translation into English …
  • … in the  Quarterly Review , a magazine published by John Murray.The pamphlets were not primarily …
  • … his orders ( Letter 8616 ). However, when Robert Cooke, John Murray’s cousin, went round to …

John Lubbock

Summary

John Lubbock was eight years old when the Darwins moved into the neighbouring property of Down House, Down, Kent; the total of one hundred and seventy surviving letters he went on to exchange with Darwin is a large number considering that the two men lived…

Matches: 14 hits

  • John Lubbock was eight years old when the Darwins moved into the neighbouring …
  • … neighbours for most of their lives.  Lubbock's father, John William Lubbock, third baronet, was …
  • … and wide-ranging studies in anthropology and prehistory, John Lubbock’s childhood interest in …
  • … mountain must come some Sunday to Mahomet.   ( to John Lubbock, 26 March [1867] ) …
  • … meetings leave in the documentary record, it is clear that John Lubbock played a significant part in …
  • … with me on general issue, or against me. ( to John Lubbock, 14 December [1859] ) …
  • … much interest for the good of my internal viscera’ ( to John Lubbock, 21 July [1870] ). It seems …
  • … a daughter? or scrupled to carry off anothers wife? ( from John Lubbock, 18 March [1871] ). …
  • … complained that he remained 'not a little in the dark' ( to John Lubbock, 26 March [1867] …
  • … William, up in a banking career, and Darwin's last known letter to John Lubbock, sent …
  • … children were strained.  ‘I am afraid our feeling to Sir John’ Francis Darwin later wrote ‘did not …
  • … when he did agree to sell it seems the Darwins thought the price was rather high. A year …
  • … He signed himself, with unusual formality, “My dear Sir John, yours sincerely”. By this stage …
  • … down.”   In the last year of his life Darwin provided a letter of introduction for Lubbock's …

Darwin in letters, 1874: A turbulent year

Summary

The year 1874 was one of consolidation, reflection, and turmoil for Darwin. He spent the early months working on second editions of Coral reefs and Descent of man; the rest of the year was mostly devoted to further research on insectivorous plants. A…

Matches: 27 hits

  • … be done by observation during prolonged intervals’ ( letter to D. T. Gardner, [ c . 27 August …
  • … pleasures of shooting and collecting beetles ( letter from W. D. Fox, 8 May [1874] ).  Such …
  • … And … one looks backwards much more than forwards’ ( letter to W. D. Fox, 11 May [1874] ). …
  • … was an illusory hope.— I feel very old & helpless’  ( letter to B. J. Sulivan, 6 January [1874] …
  • … inferred that he was well from his silence on the matter ( letter from Ernst Haeckel, 26 October …
  • … in such rubbish’, he confided to Joseph Dalton Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 18 January [1874] …
  • … that Mr Williams was ‘a cheat and an imposter’ ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 27 January 1874 ). …
  • … his, ‘& that he was thus free to perform his antics’ ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 29 January [1874 …
  • … Darwin had allowed ‘a spirit séance’ at his home ( letter from T. G. Appleton, 2 April 1874 ). …
  • … edition, published in 1842 ( Correspondence  vol. 21, letter to Smith, Elder & Co., 17 …
  • … Hooker, and finally borrowed one from Charles Lyell ( letter to Smith, Elder & Co., 8 January …
  • … to take so sweetly all the horrid bother of correction’ ( letter to H. E. Litchfield, 21 [March …
  • … it was issued in a single volume at a much reduced price of nine shillings, in line with Charles …
  • … Robert Francis Cooke, informed Darwin that the lower price would bring the profits on the first 2000 …
  • … Quarterly Review  discussing works on primitive man by John Lubbock and Edward Burnett Tylor. It …
  • … of anonymous reviews. Its proprietor was none other than John Murray, Darwin’s publisher. So …
  • … to review me in a hostile spirit’ ( letter to John Murray, 11 August 1874 ). Darwin was …
  • … number of the Review & in the same type’  ( letter from John Murray, 12 August 1874 ). George …
  • … anonymous reviews. While staying with Hooker over Christmas, John Tyndall, professor at and …
  • … as ‘the natural outflow of his character’ ( letter from John Tyndall, 28 December 1874 ). …
  • … to purchase the wooded land, which he had been renting from John Lubbock, led to a straining of …
  • … the sale was agreed in April for £300 ( letter from John Lubbock, 2 April 1874 ), a high price …
  • … for about a week ( letter from E. E. Klein, 14 May 1874 ). John Burdon Sanderson sent the results …
  • … of other insect-eating plants. The surgeon and botanist John Ralfs sent  Utricularia  from …
  • … in order to work on its difficult structures ( letter to John Ralfs, 13 July [1874] ). The …
  • … a printed appeal for funds, raising £860 ( Circular to John Lubbock, P. L. Sclater, Charles Lyell, …
  • … from E. A. Darwin, 17 [March 1874] ). He tried to persuade John Murray to publish a second edition …

Darwin in letters, 1881: Old friends and new admirers

Summary

In May 1881, Darwin, one of the best-known celebrities in England if not the world, began writing about all the eminent men he had met. He embarked on this task, which formed an addition to his autobiography, because he had nothing else to do. He had…

Matches: 27 hits

  • … in Unconscious memory in November 1880 and in an abusive letter about Darwin in the St James’s …
  • … memory in Kosmos and sent Darwin a separate letter for publication in the Journal of Popular …
  • … publishers decided to print ‘500 more, making 2000’ ( letter to H. E. Litchfield, 4 January 1881 ) …
  • … the animal learnt from its own individual experience ( letter from G. J. Romanes, 7 March 1881 ). …
  • … whether observations of their behaviour were trustworthy ( letter to Francis Galton, 8 March [1881] …
  • … eager to send his draft to the printers without delay, asked John Murray, his publisher, to make an …
  • … about the sale of books being ‘a game of chance’ ( letter to R. F. Cooke, 12 April 1881 ). On 18 …
  • … laboratory. The Lake District may have reminded Darwin of John Ruskin, who lived there. Sending the …
  • … for more suggestions of such plants, especially annuals ( letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 21 March …
  • … supposed he would feel ‘less sulky in a day or two’ ( letter to R. F. Cooke, 29 July 1881 ). The …
  • … dead a work falls at this late period of the season’ ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 30 July 1881 ). …
  • … conversation with you’, a Swedish teacher told him ( letter from C. E. Södling, 14 October 1881 ), …
  • … add, however little, to the general stock of knowledge’ ( letter to E. W. Bok, 10 May 1881 ). …
  • … regular ‘bread-winners’ ( Correspondence vol. 30, letter to C. A. Kennard, 9 January 1882 ). …
  • … any future publication & to acknowledge any criticism’ ( letter to C. G. Semper, 19 July 1881 …
  • … view of the nature & capabilities of the Fuegians’ ( letter to W. P. Snow, 22 November 1881 ). …
  • … the kindly protection of the high priests of science’ ( letter from Francisco de Arruda Furtado, 29 …
  • … Nature , which he thought ‘an excellent Journal’ ( letter to G. J. Romanes, 4 July [1881] ). In …
  • … minds, without being in the least conscious of it’ ( letter to Alexander Agassiz, 5 May 1881 ). …
  • … this produced about the year 1840(?) on all our minds’ ( letter to John Lubbock, [18 September 1881 …
  • … big one’ and had ‘gone much out’ of his mind ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 20 June [1881] ). Feeling …
  • … than for originality’, and telling Hooker, ‘Your long letter has stirred many pleasant memories of …
  • … poured in so atrocious a manner on all physiologists’ ( letter to G. J. Romanes, 18 April 1881 ). …
  • … George Jesse and Frances Power Cobbe. Jesse, in a private letter, stated that Darwin must not have …
  • … Royal Commission for the regulation of vivisection, and a letter from Cobbe in The Times made …
  • … on 27 May . Romanes assured Darwin that the artist, John Collier, Huxley’s son-in-law, was ‘such a …
  • … Darwin told his old Cambridge University friend John Price on 27 December . As Darwin rejoiced in …

Satire of FitzRoy's Narrative of the Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle, by John Clunies Ross. Transcription by Katharine Anderson

Summary

[f.146r Title page] Voyages of the Adventure and Beagle Supplement / to the 2nd 3rd and Appendix Volumes of the First / Edition Written / for and in the name of the Author of those / Volumes By J.C. Ross. / Sometime Master of a…

Matches: 16 hits

  • … has in fact occurred in 1841 to the British ship – John Orton of Liverpool – a new Vessel on her …
  • … a moment longer to come home as he deserved to do.” That letter they shewed to Mr Ross and requested …
  • … to somewhere else” – so now read “your brother's letter and then we may have something sure to …
  • … wrote to him immediately before leaving for Sumatra – a letter calculated to elicit something …
  • … – not all exaggerated – and Mr R sent him back with a letter [ f.183r p.73 ] as he proposed. …
  • … was not of any profitable description but of what Mr H in letter to Mr R denominated “fiddle faddle” …
  • … to a note from Mr H concerning the last mentioned fugitive a letter which – Mr H sent to Mr R – …
  • … ] The three or four runaways mentioned in the forgoing letter had run to apply to Mr Ross – and on …
  • … from frequenting your islands &c” and in this his second letter he writes “I told you how it …
  • … at present only as by the bye” – In reply to Mr Ross’ letter which he sent with the paper –Mr H …
  • … the Eastern one may be seen by the following extract from a letter dated 19 th May and sent by Mr …
  • … to Bencoolen and Cape Good Hope with Mr Hare – his brother John Hare – and these Malays – as already …
  • … – and then looking in my “Appendix Volume” for the price that I paid for each of these “five animals …
  • … obtaining labour is – not by paying for it – the market price but – by Stealing and Robbing it from …
  • … turtle lately captured. Some of these we purchased but the price considering the profusion was …
  • … Copy Extract Of a letter sent to Captain Ross by Captain Harding of H.M …

Darwin in letters, 1862: A multiplicity of experiments

Summary

1862 was a particularly productive year for Darwin. This was not only the case in his published output (two botanical papers and a book on the pollination mechanisms of orchids), but more particularly in the extent and breadth of the botanical experiments…

Matches: 28 hits

  • but really I do think you have a good right to be so’ ( letter from J. D. Hooker, [15 and] 20
  • species. Darwin attempted to dissuade him from this view ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 14 [January 1862
  • partially sterile together. He failed. Huxley replied ( letter from T. H. Huxley, 20 January 1862
  • and pronounced themsimply perfect’, but continued ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 18 December [1862] ) …
  • resigned to their difference of opinion, but complained ( letter to T. H. Huxley, 28 December [1862
  • of sterility between varieties of  Verbascum . When John Scott, foreman of the propagating
  • letters, Darwin, impressed, gave him the commission ( see letter to John Scott, 11 December [1862] …
  • Towards the end of the year, he wrote to Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 12 [December 1862] ): …
  • and added, ‘new cases are tumbling in almost daily’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 22 January [1862] ). In
  • hopeful, became increasingly frustrated, telling Hooker ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 7 March [1862] ) …
  • on the problem: ‘the labour is great’, he told Gray ( letter to Asa Gray, 1020 June [1862] ), ‘I
  • resulted from hisenormous  labour over them’ ( letter to J. D. Hooker, 14 [October 1862] ; …
  • Oliver: ‘I can see at least 3 classes of dimorphism’ ( letter to Daniel Oliver, 12 [April 1862] ), …
  • result once out of four or five sets of experiments’ ( letter to M. T. Masters, 24 July [1862] ). …
  • one species may be said to be generically distinct’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 14 July [1862] ). The
  • to publish on  Linum  ‘at once’ ( letter to John Scott, 11 December [1862] ), writing up his
  • buy it. When he submitted the manuscript to his publisher, John Murray, he boasted: ‘I can say with
  • in the least , whether the Book will sell’ ( letter to John Murray, 9 [February 1862] ). To his
  • paper for the  Natural History Review  ( see letter to John Lubbock, 16 [December 1862] ). Aware
  • July that he and Emma hadcome to wish for Peace at any price’ ( letter to Asa Gray, 23[–4] July
  • of the old  Beagle  crew, Bartholomew James Sulivan, John Clements Wickham, and Arthur Mellersh, …
  • of this, he prescribed strict conditions for a meeting with John Lubbock: ‘if you couldlet me go
  • at 9 o clock I do not think it would hurt me’ ( letter to John Lubbock, 23 October [1862] ). …
  • on botany. Even at the start of their correspondence he told John Scott: ‘Botany is a new subject to
  • odds & ends of botany & you know far more’ ( letter to John Scott, 19 November [1862] ). …
  • Lyell, 14 October [1862] ). Moreover, when the physicist John Tyndall, fresh from a summer in the
  • of Darwins circle was in Switzerland in the summer: John Lubbock briefly met up with Tyndall and
  • discovered prehistoric lake-dwellings ( see letter from John Lubbock, 23 August 1862 ). Lubbock

Origin is 160; Darwin's 1875 letters now online

Summary

To mark the 160th anniversary of the publication of Origin of species, the full transcripts and footnotes of nearly 650 letters to and from Charles Darwin in 1875 are published online for the first time. You can read about Darwin's life in 1875…

Matches: 10 hits

  • … been blackballed by the Linnean Society. John Burdon Sanderson, Edward Emanuel …
  • … very much more about the wide distribution of my books.  ( Letter to R. F. Cooke, 29 June [1875] ) …
  • … over the sickening work of preparing new Editions .  ( Letter to J. D. Hooker, 18 August [1875] ) …
  • … insensible, if  the experiment made this possible  ( Letter to H. E. Litchfield, 4 January [1875] …
  • … me in the vestry of having made false statements  ( Letter to John Lubbock, 8 April 1875 ) …
  • … of Down, George Sketchley Ffinden, continued to be poor. John Lubbock, another local landowner and …
  • … without much success. Emma Darwin was happy to report to John Brodie Innes, the former vicar,  that …
  • … Such energy as yours almost always succeeds  ( Letter to G. H. Darwin, 13 October [1875] ) …
  • … done in science I owe to the study of his great works ( Letter to A. B. Buckley, 23 February 1875 …
  • … act which any scientific Socy. has done in my time  ( Letter to J. D. Hooker, [12 December 1875] ) …

Darwin’s reading notebooks

Summary

In April 1838, Darwin began recording the titles of books he had read and the books he wished to read in Notebook C (Notebooks, pp. 319–28). In 1839, these lists were copied and continued in separate notebooks. The first of these reading notebooks (DAR 119…

Matches: 24 hits

  • … [Reimarius 1760] The Highlands & Western Isl ds  letter to Sir W Scott [MacCulloch 1824 …
  • … of every plant & country— Recommended by Lindley— price about 36s.— Wiegmann. Archif fur …
  • … 1834–40]: In Portfolio of “abstracts” 34  —letter from Skuckard of books on Silk Worm …
  • … The Emigrant, Head [F. B. Head 1846] St. John’s Highlands [C. W. G. Saint John 1846] …
  • … 1839–40] Jussieus introduct to Bot. price 6 s  [Jussieu 1842] …
  • … M rs  Fry’s Life [Fry 1847] Horace Walpoles letter to C t . of Ossory [Walpole 1848] …
  • … B.M. 6. 6. Black Edin. Longman [Ramsay 1848] St. John’s Nat. Hist. of Sutherlanshire, Murray …
  • … Liebigs Lectures on Chemistry [Liebig 1851]. Sir John Davies. China during the War and Peace …
  • … Asiatic Society ]—contains very little Macleay’s letter to D r  Fleming [Macleay 1830] …
  • … d . Series. vol 3. p. 1 to 312 30 th  Colquhoun (John) The Moor & the Loch [Colquhoun …
  • … Buffon [Milne-Edwards 1834–40]. March 5 th  St. John’s Highlands [Saint John 1846] 8 …
  • … Tone Autobiography [Tone 1826] very amusing March 10 John Galt Autobiography [Galt 1833] poor …
  • … 1848] Madam Malguet [Torrens] 1848] —— Lives of John & Alex. Belthune [?Bethune 1840 and …
  • … Ireland [Thompson 1849–56]. Vol. I. II & 3 May. St. John’s Tour in Sutherlandshire [Saint …
  • … [Heer 1854].— Hooker has it.— Very important Hookers letter Jan. 1859 Yules Ava [Yule 1858] …
  • … Empire [Huc 1855] Feb 16 th  Pagets Hungary [John Paget 1839] —— Bechsteins …
  • … of the material from these portfolios is in DAR 205, the letter from William Edward Shuckard to …
  • … ( Notebooks , pp. 319–28). 55  The letter was addressed to Nicholas Aylward Vigors …
  • … to William Jackson Hooker. See  Correspondence  vol. 3, letter to J. D. Hooker, [5 or 12 November …
  • … 119: 21b Broughton, William Grant. 1832.  A letter in vindication of   the principles of …
  • … by Bekhur to   Garoo and the Lake Manasarowara: with a letter from … J.   G. Gerard, Esq. …
  • … 1830. On the dying struggle of the dichotomous sytem. In a letter to N. A. Vigors.  Philosophical …
  • … *119: 8v., 22v.; *128: 165 ——. 1850a. Letter to the Rev. John Bachman, on the question of …
  • … art of improving the   breeds of domestic animals. In a letter addressed to the   Right Hon. Sir …

Origin

Summary

Darwin’s most famous work, Origin, had an inauspicious beginning. It grew out of his wish to establish priority for the species theory he had spent over twenty years researching. Darwin never intended to write Origin, and had resisted suggestions in 1856…

Matches: 6 hits

  • While still on the Isle of Wight, Darwin also heard from John Stevens Henslow, his old mentor and
  • make a large-sized pamphlet. ’ On the 4 October, in a letter to T. C. Eyton explaining his change
  • buoyed up in January 1859, when he received a (now lost) letter from Wallace, expressing
  • In late March, Lyell had a word with his own publisher, John Murray, who had already published
  • his friend George Frederick Pollock. The former, in a long letter to Murray, believed that Darwin
  • of my child ’, and agreed to Murrays proposed priceAccording to Darwins wish, presentation

Movement in Plants

Summary

The power of movement in plants, published on 7 November 1880, was the final large botanical work that Darwin wrote. It was the only work in which the assistance of one of his children, Francis Darwin, is mentioned on the title page. The research for this…

Matches: 26 hits

  • … had considered combining the works in a single volume ( letter to J. V. Carus, 7 February 1875 ). …
  • … , a plant that exhibited all three types of movement ( letter from R. I. Lynch, [before 28 July …
  • … the woodblock using photography for scientific accuracy ( letter from J. D. Cooper, 13 December …
  • … lost colour, withered, and died within a couple of days ( letter from A. F. Batalin, 28 February …
  • … how their observations could have been so much at odds ( letter to Hugo de Vries 13 February 1879 …
  • … the botanist Gaetano Durando, to find plants and seeds ( letter to Francis Darwin, [4 February – 8 …
  • … only the regulator & not cause of movement ’. In the same letter, Darwin discussed terminology, …
  • … to replace Frank’s ‘Transversal-Heliotropismus’ ( letter from W. E. Darwin, 10 February [1880] ). …
  • … experiments and devised a new test, which he described in a letter to his mother, ‘ I did some …
  • … and it appeared in 1880 (F. Darwin 1880b). In the same letter, Francis revealed the frustration of …
  • … on holiday in the Lake District, Darwin received a long letter from De Vries detailing his latest …
  • … described as ‘little discs’ and ‘greenish bodies’ ( letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 29 October 1879 …
  • … of cotton that he had not been able to observe earlier ( letter to W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, 20 …
  • … might have been too weak to lift the weight of the seed ( letter from Asa Gray, 3 February 1880 ). …
  • … germination occurred, the plant would be killed by frost ( letter from Asa Gray, 4 April 1880 ). …
  • … Movements of Plants’, he told Robert Cooke of John Murray publishers, before suggesting ‘The …
  • … Phytographie  (A. de Candolle 1880). In his letter of thanks for the book, Darwin promised to send …
  • … for advice about the number of copies they should print ( letter to John Murray, 10 July 1880 ). …
  • … works, Murray was willing to publish on the usual terms ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 15 July 1880 ). …
  • … He could only suggest printing more copies or raising the price ( letter from R. F. Cooke, 20 July …
  • … Stahl’s paper with him, for the relevant page numbers ( letter to Francis Darwin, 5 August [1880] …
  • … publisher, Eduard Koch had already agreed to publish it ( letter from J. V. Carus, 18 September …
  • … as stereotypes of the text were available from Murray ( letter from D. Appleton & Co., 17 …
  • … corollas or the reactive movement of pistils and stamens ( letter from Édouard Heckel, 23 September …
  • … for the translations and asked about the cost of these ( letter to R. F. Cooke, 16 October 1880 ). …
  • … last chapter & you will know whole contents of book ’. No letter to Balfour survives, but …