To John Murray 8 March [1871]1
Down. | Kent. S.E.
March 8th
My dear Mr Murray
Mr Gerald Massey proposes to exchange some book with me for the Descent of Man, but as I do not know him, I think this sounds cool & I have civilly declined.—2 He says you know him; will you therefore be so good as either to keep the vol: till he calls for it, or return it to him.
Please let me hear some 2 or 3 days before vols. of the Reprint are ready.— I find I must give away a few more.3 Also I shd like to hear, when you have accounts made up, what my profit on the reprint will be, when the Reprint is sold.— Do you keep to the 1500 copies?4 Capital Review in Saturday R.—good notice in Pall Mall—& contemptuous as usual in Athenæum, but how dull & ignorant a man the writer of the last article must be.—5
Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
Freeman, Richard Broke. 1977. The works of Charles Darwin: an annotated bibliographical handlist. 2d edition. Folkestone, Kent: William Dawson & Sons. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, Shoe String Press.
[Leifchild, John R.] 1871. Review of Descent. Athenæum 4 March 1871, pp. 275–7.
Massey, Gerald. [1871.] Concerning spiritualism. London: J. Burns.
Summary
Asks what his profits on the reprints of Descent will be when half have been sold.
Good reviews in Saturday Review and Pall Mall Gazette;
contemptuous one as usual in Athenæum.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7555
- From
- Charles Robert Darwin
- To
- John Murray
- Sent from
- Down
- Source of text
- National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms. 42152 ff. 222–3)
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7555,” accessed on 28 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7555.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19