From J. F. McLennan 5 May 1874
61. Bedford Gardens. | Campden Hill. W.
5 May 74
My dear Mr. Darwin,
I have for the last few days been at work here on a Bill wanted in haste about the Sheriff Courts in Scotland so that I have only today received yours of the 2nd. which you sent to the Office.1
I shall be glad if you let me have a reading of Mr. Wake’s paper which I shall return to you at once.
Morgan’s paper I duly received—2 I thought I had acknowledged its receipt with thanks. I should like to retain it yet a while.
I called one day on Mr. Murray to ask him to undertake a reprint of “Primitive Marriage” for me.3 He was very civil but had never heard of the book & thought it more likely to be in MacMillan’s way than his own. I have never had time to do more in the matter.
I am sorry to say I am in Dr. Andrew Clark’s hands just now—for an attack of bleeding from the lungs.4 It is slight, but is a novel experience which I dont like. I trust you are well.
Yrs. very sincerely | J. F M’Lennan.
Footnotes
Bibliography
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Descent: The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex. By Charles Darwin. 2 vols. London: John Murray. 1871.
McLennan, John Ferguson. 1865. Primitive marriage: an inquiry into the origin of the form of capture in marriage ceremonies. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black.
Morgan, Lewis Henry. 1872. Australian kinship. [Read 12 March 1872.] Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 8 (1868–73): 412–38.
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.
Post Office London directory: Post-Office annual directory. … A list of the principal merchants, traders of eminence, &c. in the cities of London and Westminster, the borough of Southwark, and parts adjacent … general and special information relating to the Post Office. Post Office London directory. London: His Majesty’s Postmaster-General [and others]. 1802–1967.
Wake, Charles Staniland. 1873. Marriage among primitive peoples. [Read 2 November 1873.] Anthropologia 1 (1873–5): 197-207.
Summary
Would like to see C. S. Wake’s paper ["Marriage among primitive peoples", Anthropologia 1 (1873–5): 197–207].
Will return L. H. Morgan’s work [? Systems of consanguinity (1871)].
Murray suggests Macmillan’s are more likely to reprint JFMcL’s Primitive marriage.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9442
- From
- John Ferguson McLennan
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Campden Hill
- Source of text
- DAR 171: 20
- Physical description
- ALS 3pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9442,” accessed on 19 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9442.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22
