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Darwin Correspondence Project

From John Murray   28 April [1869]1

50, Albemarle St. | W.

Ap. 28

My Dear Sir

It appears that I have sold 400 copies of Muller out of 1000 printed.2 It is a very bad time for Bookselling, this—indeed for every kind of business. I was sorry to hear you had met with an accident— Did you get the last Quarterly? It seems to me the best exposition of the Darwinian Theory I have met with3

I propose to print 2000 copies of the new Edition of Origin of Species & hope to reduce the price to the original s14/—4 Mr Hegt’s book is sent off.5

My Dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | John Murray

Ch Darwin Esqre

Footnotes

The year is established by the reference to Dallas trans. 1869 (see n. 2, below).
William Sweetland Dallas’s translation of Fritz Müller’s Für Darwin (Dallas trans. 1869, F. Müller 1864a) was published in March 1869 (see letter from Robert Cooke, 12 March 1869).
Murray refers to a review by Alfred Russel Wallace in the Quarterly Review ([Wallace] 1869b). On CD’s accident, see the letter to A. R. Wallace, 14 April 1869 and n. 12.
Murray refers to the fifth edition of Origin.

Bibliography

Journal of researches: Journal of researches into the geology and natural history of the various countries visited by HMS Beagle, under the command of Captain FitzRoy, RN, from 1832 to 1836. By Charles Darwin. London: Henry Colburn. 1839.

Summary

Has sold 400 copies of Facts and arguments for Darwin. It is a poor time for bookselling.

Last Quarterly Review has best exposition of Darwinism he has met with [A. R. Wallace, "Geological climates, and origin of species", Q. Rev. 126 (1869): 359–94].

Proposes to print 2000 copies of a new [5th] edition of Origin.

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-6715
From
John Murray
To
Charles Robert Darwin
Sent from
London, Albemarle St, 50
Source of text
DAR 171: 368
Physical description
ALS 1p

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 6715,” accessed on 16 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-6715.xml

Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 17

letter