Summary

Will be proud to publish CD’s new work on domestic animals [Variation]. Will announce it as the complement of the Origin. Advises on woodcuts; does not wish to limit number; agrees to CD’s suggestions for artists.

Summary

Sends cheques in payment on three of CD’s books.

Proposes to print 500 copies of Insectivorous plants before distributing the type.

Summary

Acknowledges receipt of promissory note for £372 from JM for third edition of Origin.

Summary

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

Various publication arrangements.

Summary

There is no chance of publication [of Variation] by autumn, because of CD’s illness.

Summary

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

Descent has gone to press for 2500 copies.

Summary

Will be glad to see Miss Wedgwood’s MS on Wesley.

The clichés of Fritz Müller’s work [Für Darwin] have arrived.

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

JM will publish [Variation] "coute qui coute", paying CD half the profits.

Thinks he can count on 500 purchases of what he calls the "Pièces Justificatives" of the Origin and will print 750 copies.

His literary friend found it "difficult of digestion".

Summary

Greatly pleased at sale [of Climbing plants].

Points out a discrepancy in their records of copies of Origin printed.

500 more copies of Insectivorous plants should last forever.

Summary

First portion of Variation MS has been set up. Murray will not decide on number to be printed until he has read a good portion. The agreement applies only to the first edition.

Summary

JM states he will publish [Variation] on same basis as Origin, i.e., paying CD two-thirds of the profits.

In response to Asa Gray’s suggestion, he could supply Ticknor & Fields with 250 copies [of Origin, 4th ed.] at half-price.

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

Relieved by JM’s note and by his agreement on type size. Is alarmed by what the verdict [on Variation] of JM’s friend will be. He is not a man of science. An unscientific reader would have condemned the Origin. An eminent semi-scientific man thought the Journal of researches not worth publishing.

Summary

Lost copy of Variation sent to B. D. Walsh has been traced as far as New York.

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

Receipt for payment by John Murray of £630 for the first edition, consisting of 2500 copies, of Descent.

Summary

Asks to be informed whenever more copies of his books are printed, as there may be errors to correct.

Asks how many copies of Origin have been printed "from the first". The number will be "a good puff" when listed in the new edition of Variation.

Summary

Thanks for accounts which make everything intelligible to him. Since he was glad to have Orchids published at one-half of profits for himself, he believes it would be very shabby to accept JM’s new offer of two-thirds profits. Thinks it would be fairer to both to change to JM’s usual practice with authors [i.e., annual statements of sales, payments based on them, and final accounting when all copies have been sold].

Summary

The new title is fixed. Thanks for clean sheets. As to number of copies, now that JM proposes 1500, CD is frightened.