To Ernst Krause 14 March 1879
Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.
Mar 14/79
My dear Sir,
I thank you for your most kind agreement to my request. I am delighted to hear that you intend your sketch a little, & I feel sure that it will be our best plan to wait until this is done.1 Before hearing from you we had decided that it would be useless to apply to the Fortnightly.2 I hope that you will be so good as to send us the sheets as they are printed off, so that the translation may be making progress. Unfortunately I have no copy of Miss Seward’s life, I have sent for one from a public library but I could not lend this copy.3 I will order a search for a second-hand copy, & if I succeed will send it you. But please to observe that I distinctly remember my father saying that this life was not only grossly incorrect, but maliciously false. When it appeared he threatened to publish some letters injurious to her Miss Seward’s fame if she did not publicly retract some of her statements, & I believe that she did so.4 A well known physician in London Dr Richardson, several years ago told me that he had collected materials for the life of Dr Darwin, but afterwards gave up the intention. I will write to him and ask whether he has any materials which he could put at your disposal.5 I am myself wholly & shamefully ignorant of my grandfathers life & I can be of no assistance to you in correcting your M.S; moreover I am a very poor German scholar, often make mistakes & read the language slowly. My brother has a good picture of Eras Darwin & we thought of getting autotype (photographic) copies made of it for the translation. I will get one of my sons who understands photography to see about it, & I will send you a specimen.6 My copy of the Bot Garden which seems to be the first edit was published in 1791.7
Believe me, my dear Sir | Yours faithfully | & obliged | Charles Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Barnard, Teresa. 2009. Anna Seward: a constructed life. A critical biography. Farnham: Ashgate.
Darwin, Erasmus. 1789–91. The botanic garden; a poem, in two parts. Pt 1. The economy of vegetation. London: J. Johnson. 1791. Pt 2. The loves of the plants. With philosophical notes. Lichfield: J. Jackson. 1789.
Keynes, Milo. 1994. Portraits of Dr Erasmus Darwin, F.R.S., by Joseph Wright, James Rawlinson and William Coffee. Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 48: 69–84.
King-Hele, Desmond. 1999. Erasmus Darwin. A life of unequalled achievement. London: Giles de la Mare Publishers.
Krause, Ernst. 1879a. Erasmus Darwin, der Großvater und Vorkämpfer Charles Darwin’s: ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Descendenz-Theorie. Kosmos 4 (1878–9): 397–424.
Seward, Anna. 1804. Memoirs of the life of Dr. Darwin. London: J. Johnson.
Summary
Pleased to hear that EK agrees to CD’s request to have article on Erasmus Darwin translated. Will wait for EK’s enlargement. Has decided submission to Fortnightly Review would be useless.
Warns against Anna Seward’s biography of Dr Darwin.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-11932
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- Ernst Ludwig (Ernst) Krause
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- The Huntington Library (HM 36176)
- Physical description
- LS(A) 10pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 11932,” accessed on 17 August 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-11932.xml