From J. V. Carus 24 June 1881
Leipzig
June 24th. 1881
My dear Sir,
You will have seen from my last letter, that I entirely agree to any arrangement you will please to take with regard to your new book.1 In the mean time I have got a letter from Herr Koch, who informs me, that he has arranged with Mr Krause, that I should translate the book and send one chapter of it to the Kosmos for previous separate publication. As Koch is at present the publisher of the Kosmos, he is of course in regular correspondence with Herr Krause.2
For my part I entirely depend upon your decision. If you kindly allow me to translate the book, of course it would not be convenient, to have the same chapter translated twice by two different men. With regard to the choice of a chapter I fully agree with Herr Koch, that one on the practical work of the Earthworms would be more interesting to the general reader than on the organs of sense etc. Here also your advice would be of the greatest value for us.3
I was at Marienbad for about 12 days, but came home rather worse than I went. Now I look forward to a good rest during the long vacation, from the middle of August to the end of September or thereabouts.4 If you could send me proofsheets soon, I could work before I go. You would oblige me very much if you would kindly let me know how far the book is in progress and when you think it possible to send me sheets.
But of course I should not like to trouble you in the very least.
Believe me, | My dear Sir, | Yours ever sincerely | J. Victor Carus
Footnotes
Bibliography
Earthworms: The formation of vegetable mould through the action of worms: with observations on their habits. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1881.
Krause, Ernst. 1881a. Neues Werk von Ch. Darwin. [Review of Earthworms.] Kosmos 10 (1881–2): 149–58.
Summary
Koch [of Schweizerbart, publisher of CD’s works in Germany and also publisher of Kosmos] has asked JVC to translate Earthworms and send one chapter of it to Kosmos for advance separate publication. He thinks a chapter on the practical work of the earthworms would be most interesting to the general reader.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-13216
- From
- Julius Victor Carus
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Leipzig
- Source of text
- DAR 161: 115
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 13216,” accessed on 25 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-13216.xml