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Darwin Correspondence Project

From R. F. Cooke   10 November 1880

50A, Albemarle Street, London. W.

Nov 10 1880

My dear Sir

We are only waiting for the printer to finish off the Index & end of yr book & I understood from Mr Clowes1 who was here yesterday that you had not then retd. it for press.

What you say of the Index maker has distressed us as it is by the same hand that has done your previous ones with which you have been well pleased.2

Take no trouble as to the Type of the work.3 It will be kept standing for 5 or 6 months certain without charge & we had better wait for the hostile criticisms !!! before we print any more off.

We have now sold 800 Copies

Yours faithfully | Robt. Cooke

Chas. Darwin Esq

We will not forget Nature4

Footnotes

Matilda Smith had prepared the indexes for Forms of flowers and Cross and self fertilisation. For CD’s complaints about the index to Movement in plants, see letter to R. F. Cooke, 8 November [1880].
CD had asked the cost of keeping the type up for two months (letter to R. F. Cooke, 8 November [1880]).
CD had asked for advertisements for Movement in plants to be placed in Nature (see letter to R. F. Cooke, 8 November [1880] and n. 4). A short notice, ‘New work by Mr. Darwin next week, with woodcuts’, appeared in Nature, 11 November 1880, p. xii; the book was also in the list published by John Murray in Nature, 25 November 1880, p. xxxii, and 23 December 1880, p. lx.

Bibliography

Cross and self fertilisation: The effects of cross and self fertilisation in the vegetable kingdom. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1876.

Forms of flowers: The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1877.

Summary

Movement in plants needs only the index. Distressed by CD’s dissatisfaction with the indexer.

Eight hundred copies have now been sold. Type will be kept up.

Decision on printing additional copies should await reviews.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12807
From
Robert Francis Cooke; John Murray
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
London, Albemarle St, 50a
Source of text
DAR 171: 512
Physical description
ALS 2pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12807,” accessed on 18 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12807.xml

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