From R. F. Cooke 18 August 1871
50A, Albemarle Street, London. W.
Augt. 18 1871
My dear Sir
In Mr. Murray’s absence, I beg to reply to your letter & say, that altho’ as a rule, we do not publish pamphlets, yet we have made exceptions & I am sure Mr Murray will not object to publishing the one you propose & therefore by all means forward the copy to Messrs. Clowes & Sons.1
We have not printed any more of the “Descent of Man” for there was rather a lull in the sale & out of the last 2000 Copies, on June 30th we had 825 copies left, so that we had given Messrs Clowes permission to distribute the type—but strange to say, a few days afterwards, a fresh demand sprung up & we have sold 200 copies & so I told Clowes to hold their hand for the present.2
I am sorry to hear you have been poorly but hope the rain of last night has both refreshed you & the country.
Mr Murray & family are in Scotland, but return the end of next week3
Yours faithfully | Robt. Cooke
Did you see the review of “Descent” in the Guardian?4
Chas. Darwin Esq
Footnotes
Bibliography
ODNB: Oxford dictionary of national biography: from the earliest times to the year 2000. (Revised edition.) Edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. 60 vols. and index. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2004.
Summary
RC is sure Murray would not object to printing the pamphlet [C. Wright’s Darwinism: being an examination of Mr. St. G. J. Mivart’s "Genesis of species"].
After a lull in sales of Descent, a fresh demand warrants keeping type set up. Has CD seen the review of Descent in the Guardian?
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-7909
- From
- Robert Francis Cooke; John Murray
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- London, Albemarle St, 50a
- Source of text
- DAR 171: 401
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 7909,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-7909.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 19