Summary

Sends table of sales [of Journal of researches]. 2000 copies sold since 1860.

Descent has gone to press for 2500 copies.

Summary

Cannot find the [indelicate] passage he referred to in last letter.

Various publication arrangements.

Summary

Various arrangements concerning the publication of Descent. "It will cause men to prick up [their] ears – & to elevate their eyebrows." JM thinks he will venture to print 2500 copies.

Suggests CD tone down as possibly indelicate a passage on proportion of advances made by the two sexes in animals.

Summary

JM reports 1900 [advance] copies of Descent were taken at his annual sale,

and 340 copies of Origin [5th ed.] were sold.

Sheets for Dutch publisher will be sent to CD immediately. JM cautions against possibility that Dutch edition will anticipate the English.

Summary

CD did not promise Appleton stereotypes of text [of Descent]; only of cuts.

Wishes to know which passage JM thought "coarse". Remembers only a quotation from John Hunter on courtship of female being required "to give her desires" [Descent 1: 273]. He fancied a quotation rendered the sentence less coarse.

Summary

JM informs CD that he will have Clowes give him written assurance that the printing [of Descent] will proceed without interruption.

The [Franco-Prussian] War is a sad damper on international science and his publishing plans.

Summary

MS of Descent, except last chapter, is ready to send to printer. Hopes the printer will be able to keep him steadily at work correcting proof. "It drives me mad to change from job to job."

Summary

Pleased at [advance] sale [of Descent]. Suggests 3000 copies be printed. Corrections are frightful and, CD fears, will not be done until end of year.

Summary

Glad to hear Dallas will do index of Descent, but he needs keeping up to the mark. Agrees to a Dutch edition.

Summary

Finds Academy contains valuable matter for his work.

Descent progresses slowly – will not be ready for press for several months.

Summary

Wants sheets [of Descent] for foreign editions. Asks JM to determine price to be charged for the stereotypes of 62 cuts. Dallas would be excellent for the index but must be "civilly warned" not to delay. Encloses memo on the index.

Summary

Asks CD whether he is far enough along with his new work [Descent] to allow him to announce it as a forthcoming publication in his next quarterly list.

Summary

Financial adjustments for last edition of Origin

and a tentative title for the new work: "Descent of man and selection according to sex". [Later changed to "in relation to sex".]

Summary

Variation is a much better looking volume than Origin due to quality of paper and binding. Hopes JM will attend to this point in Descent. Printers have sent "splendid lot" of proofs.

Summary

Would like to hear results of JM’s November booksale.

Summary

He agrees with his family that binding of Variation looks much better than Origin.

Asks JM to report the number of copies he has printed of Naturalist’s Voyage [Journal of researches].

Summary

Asks JM to consider publishing a MS on John Wesley by CD’s niece, Frances Julia Wedgwood [John Wesley and the evangelical reaction of the eighteenth century (1870)].

Has received clean sheets for Italian translation [of Variation?].

Summary

Wants to keep "The origin of man" as first part of title of book.

Summary

Masson et Fils have brought out a third French edition [of Origin] without informing CD and without the advantage of the corrections of the 4th and 5th English editions. For this and other reasons CD wants to give translation rights for the 5th English edition to C. Reinwald.

Summary

Editor of L’Unione, Turin, would publish an Italian edition of Variation if the clichés of the English edition were made available at not more than £10.