Summary

Delighted with JM’s suggestions. Asks JM to send sheets to Lyell.

Summary

His health has suddenly failed. He is leaving home for one week’s rest.

Has informed William Clowes that he will begin correcting on the 27th.

Summary

Sends receipt for bill for £180 due 27 May 1860 [for Origin].

Summary

Has sent off last proof of 2d ed. of Origin. Assumes JM has remembered the diagram. Asks that remaining clean sheets be sent to Asa Gray.

Summary

Sends five sheets [of Origin] to printer. Incapable of forming an opinion, but thinks he has the style "fairly good and clear". Cannot conjecture if book will be successful enough to satisfy JM.

Summary

Cannot suggest an appropriate device or ornament for cover [of Origin].

Will send a list for distribution of author’s copies as soon as JM tells him approximate trade price.

Summary

Thanks JM for trouble taken with French edition [of Journal of researches].

Is glad 3000 copies of 2d ed. [of Origin] will be printed.

Summary

Thanks JM for present of McClintock’s work [Sir Francis Leopold McClintock, The voyage of the "Fox" in the Arctic seas (1859)], which he and his wife look forward to reading.

Asks to be told when reprint [of Origin] is ready.

Summary

Will send first six chapters [of Origin] for the press. Sends data on size of MS and book. His "beau ideal" for type and size is Lyell’s Manual [of geology] 1st ed.

Important to his health to get the work printed quickly. Must leave home soon to stay for months at a water-cure establishment.

Asks printer to send a proof-sheet a day until he gets well ahead.

Summary

CD is convinced that the suggestions [for the Origin?] of both Lyell and Whitwell Elwyn are impracticable.

Will send first six chapters of MS next week. Has taken such pains with it that he hopes corrections will not be heavy.

Summary

Sends first six chapters [of Origin] for the press. Asks JM to urge printer to keep well ahead of CD so as not to waste time. This is important for his health’s sake.

Summary

Finds style [of Origin] incredibly bad; corrections are very heavy. Supposes it was due to his attention being fixed on general lines of argument and not on detail. Wishes to share expense of corrections.

Summary

On title of Origin, suggests omitting word "Varieties" altogether if JM does not object. Last proofs corrected, but revises still to do.

Summary

Accepts JM’s terms for publication of Origin. If, on reading the MS, JM thinks it will not sell, CD frees him from the offer. Will send chapters soon so he can judge. Though some parts are dry and abstruse, CD thinks it will be interesting to "those who care for the curious problem of the origin of all animate forms".

Summary

Sends title and first three chapters [of Origin]. Thinks first chapter will interest the public and is sure views are original. If JM thinks otherwise, he should freely reject the work. Chapter 2 is dull and abstruse, chapter 3 is plain and interesting.

Summary

Approves specimen sheet [of Origin]. Sorry book will be so long. Has now written half of last chapter; it is as long as his estimate of the entire chapter. Now thinks it will run to 6000 or 7000 words. Will do his utmost to improve his style. Anxious to publish soon; he knows of two men already writing on the subject, starting from his Linnean Society paper ["On the tendency of species to form varieties", Collected papers 2: 3–19]. Will send a diagram for the book.

Summary

CD’s diagram [for chapter on "Divergence of character", Origin] is indispensable.

Finds he will have to make many corrections, his text is so obscure.

A week of hydropathy at Moor Park has done him a world of good.

Summary

Sheets [of Origin] up to p. 240 are ready. Asks how many copies and how soon JM will publish. Hopes as soon as possible because of his health. Bitterly disappointed at delay he has caused.

Summary

Asa Gray offers to arrange for reprinting Origin in U. S. CD has told him JM would send sheets of 2d ed. by post.

CD thinks he has good scheme for his "larger work" in three volumes, with separate titles and a general title. Will be two years before first volume is ready because of his health.

Summary

Infinitely pleased and proud of the appearance of his "child" [Origin, 1st ed.]. Thinks JM has been overgenerous in paying for his corrections. Offers to divide cost and regrets sending such badly composed copy.