skip to content

Darwin Correspondence Project

To R. F. Cooke   18 November [1879]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Nov. 18th

My dear Sir

I am very much obliged for Mr Murray’s kind offer, but the compiler (the son of the Noble Garrison) sent me a copy. I told him I know nothing about copyright or whether Mr. Murray wd object to the book being sold in England. In my opinion it wd. serve as an advertisement of my Journal. But I do not at all know whether the Publishers intend to try to sell it in England.2

I was satisfied with the sale of my books at your sale, except of the life of Dr. D. for though my reason told me, as I said to you, that 1000 copies wd be enough to print off, yet I had a secret wish that more wd be ultimately required.3 This, I suppose, is now very improbable, though just possible, if the little book shd. be spoken well of in Reviews.

With many thanks for all your kind assistance | I remain, my dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Footnotes

The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from W. P. Garrison, 9 November 1879.
CD had received a copy of an American edition of Journal of researches (What Mr. Darwin saw in his voyage round the world; C. R. Darwin 1880), abridged and rearranged for children by Wendell Phillips Garrison, son of the anti-slavery campaigner William Lloyd Garrison (see letter from W. P. Garrison, 9 November 1879). C. R. Darwin 1880 was published in the US by Harper & Brothers. CD’s publisher was John Murray.
Murray held a sale dinner each November for the book trade (J. Murray 1908–9, p. 540). CD had suggested printing 1000 copies of Erasmus Darwin in his letter to Cooke of 4 October [1879]. Six hundred copies were sold at the sale dinner; see letter to Ernst Krause, 17 November 1879.

Bibliography

Darwin, Charles. 1880. What Mr. Darwin saw in his voyage round the world in the ship ‘Beagle’. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers.

Murray, John. 1908–9. Darwin and his publisher. Science Progress in the Twentieth Century 3: 537–42.

Summary

Thinks W. P. Garrison’s book [extracts from Journal of researches for juvenile readers] would serve as an advertisement for the Journal.

Disappointed at sale of Erasmus Darwin.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-12327
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Robert Francis Cooke; John Murray
Sent from
Down
Source of text
National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive) (Ms. 42152 ff. 364–5)
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 12327,” accessed on 29 March 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-12327.xml

letter