skip to content
Home

Darwin Correspondence Project

To Charles Layton   26 November [1869]1

Down. | Beckenham | Kent. S.E.

Nov. 26

Dear Sir

The last or 5th. Edit. of the Origin was printed off some months ago & it is impossible to supply stereotypes.—2 I hope that you will inform Mssrs Appleton of what I have said of the increased size &c of this last & 5th. Edit. As 2000 copies of this Edit were printed, there will not be a new Edit. for a considerable time. I am not at all surprised at the sale having been slack of the old Edit. with all its imperfections3

If Mssrs. Appleton will reprint this 5th edition, of the Origin I will pledge myself to endeavour to persuade Mr Murray to supply stereotype Plates of my new Book on the Descent of Man;; but as I never before heard of such a scheme, I have no idea whether he will comply.— In any case I will pledge myself, on the above conditions & on the terms suggested in your letter, to send over the sheets as printed & stereotype casts of the woodcuts. But please remember my new book will not go to press for many months.4

Dear Sir | Yours faithfully | Ch. Darwin

Footnotes

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Charles Layton, 25 November 1869 (Correspondence vol. 17).
2
Layton had asked for stereotypes of Origin 5th ed. for a new US edition; Origin 5th ed. was published in late June (Correspondence vol. 17, letter from R. F. Cooke, 22 June 1869).
3
See Correspondence vol. 17, letter to Charles Layton, 24 June [1869]. On additions to Origin 5th ed., see ibid., Introduction, pp. xv–xvii. The second US edition of Origin was published in 1870; the first had been published in 1860.
4
Descent was published in 1871; the text of the US edition was not printed from stereotypes (Freeman 1977).

Bibliography

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.

Origin 2d US ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. By Charles Darwin. From the fifth London edition, with additions and corrections. New York: D. Appleton. 1870.

Origin 5th ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. 5th edition, with additions and corrections. By Charles Darwin. London: John Murray. 1869.

Origin US ed.: On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. A new edition, revised and augmented by the author. By Charles Darwin. New York: D. Appleton. 1860.

Summary

The 5th edition of Origin was printed some months previously and stereotypes cannot be supplied.

If Appletons will reprint the 5th edition of Origin in America, he pledges to supply stereotypes, if possible, or the sheets as printed if not, of his new book (Descent).

Letter details

Letter no.
DCP-LETT-7012F
From
Charles Robert Darwin
To
Charles James (Charles) Layton
Sent from
Down
Source of text
Bonhams, New York (dealers) (13 June 2019, lot 5)
Physical description
ALS 3pp

Please cite as

Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7012F,” accessed on 13 May 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7012F.xml

letter

Darwin Correspondence Project
darwin@lib.cam.ac.uk

© University of Cambridge 2022

Copyright declaration

Privacy policy

Website by Surface Impression

 

Study at Cambridge

About the University

Research at Cambridge