From Vladimir Onufrievich Kovalevsky 26 February 1868
Febr. 14/26 18681
Dear Sir
I received the sheets of your work in due time, but the printing is not getting as quick as I could wish;2 firstly I was seriously ill about Christmas and now, being a member of the Relief-Committee for the dreadful distress in some of our Agricultural districts I have very much to travel; so, last week, I made more than a thousand miles by impraticable roads, having very often to drag my sledge together with the horse and this in a temperature between 20o and 36o below zero by Reaumur.3 The cold this winter is something quite extraordinary, and I was twice nearly frozen and had a very narrow escape. All this retarded the printing and translation, but still the first volume is nearly finished, and the whole second is ready in translation so that in two months the whole work will be finished. I am very glad of the immense success Your book met in England,4 I hope the same for my translation though a brilliant success in our country is to sell 3000 copies in about three years at least. I have some portraits of Naturalists but will send them when I have more.5 I will be quite certainly in July in London and hope to see you once more.
I beg to remember me to Mrs Darwin and the ladies of Your family6
My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | V. Kovalevsky
P.S. I dont think that the errors and corrections of the Second Edition are very substantial, so that I dare not to worry You about sheets, at all events if You should think it indispensable I should beg You to send them sous bande and not in covers.7
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Variation: The variation of animals and plants under domestication. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1868.
Summary
His translation and printing of Variation will be completed in two months.
His work on a relief committee for Russia’s agricultural distress has forced him to travel 1000 miles in the last week.
Plans to visit CD in July.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-5938
- From
- Vladimir Onufrievich Kovalevsky (Владимир Онуфриевич Ковалевский)
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- unstated
- Source of text
- DAR 169: 76
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 5938,” accessed on 23 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-5938.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 16