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Darwin Correspondence Project

To John Murray   3 December [1860]

Down Bromley Kent

Dec. 3d

My dear Mr Murray

In the copy of Origin sent me for correction p. 31, 32, 41, & 42 are missing.— if you can find them please send them, as it will be a bore copying them in M.S.; but it will not, of course, be worth cutting up a new copy.—

You did not answer my question in how great a hurry you are for the new Edition?—1 Shall I send the first half of sheets when ready. The corrections will enlarge volume by a dozen or so pages; there will also be a short Historical Sketch.2 I will give list of principle additions & corrections—3 I shd like words “with Corrections” on Title.—4

It will perhaps save you another note; if you will tell me to what printers I shall send sheets? Also may I direct printers to take especial & extra care of merely typical errors so that I may look only to sense; it would save me much time, & I am much pressed for time.

The Printers managed new paging of Index for last Reprint, & I must request same assistance this time.

My dear Mr Murray | Yours very sincerely | C. Darwin

I have just found an old Proof Sheet which will serve.—5

Footnotes

The sketch had been composed for the revised American edition of Origin and also included in the German translation (Bronn trans. 1860). See Appendix IV.
The third English edition gives a list of ‘Additions and corrections, to the second and third editions’ (Origin 3d ed., pp. xi–xii; Peckham ed. 1959, pp. 51–7).
The title page of the new edition included the words: ‘Third edition, with additions and corrections.’
The final sentence was written in the margin next to the first paragraph, which was then deleted by CD.

Bibliography

Origin 3d ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 3d edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1861.

Origin: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1859.

Summary

Asks again how great a hurry there is for new edition [of Origin, 3d ed.]. Corrections will enlarge volume by a dozen or twenty pages, plus a short historical sketch. Would like "With Corrections" in title.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-3004
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
John Murray
Sent from
Down
Source of text
National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms.42152 ff.80–81)
Physical description
ALS 4pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 3004,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-3004.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 8

letter