From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Erasmus Darwin
Date:
25 [Aug 1859]
Source of text:
DAR 210.6: 47
Summary:
Writes of a visit to Leith Hill and WED’s injured ankle.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
1 Sept [1859]
Source of text:
DAR 115: 22
Summary:
All but last two chapters of Origin proofs corrected.
Praise for JDH’s introductory essay [to Flora Tasmaniae].
Very ill and sick of work.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
11 [Sept 1859]
Source of text:
DAR 115: 21
Summary:
Corrected last proof of Origin yesterday. Still has revises and index to do.
Will read more JDH proofs of Flora Tasmaniae.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Erasmus Darwin
Date:
[23 Oct – 20 Nov 1859]
Source of text:
DAR 210.6: 48
Summary:
Tells how to get information on, and gain membership in, the London Library.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Erasmus Darwin
Date:
[14 Oct 1859]
Source of text:
DAR 210.6: 49
Summary:
Discusses events at Ilkley.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Lyell, 1st baronet
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
3 Oct 1859
Source of text:
DAR 98: B1–6
Summary:
Praises the Origin: a "splendid case of close reasoning".
Objects to CD’s having ignored Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.
Thinks CD should omit mentioning problem of explaining the eye at the beginning of chapter 14. Suggests rewording several passages.
Thinks want of peculiar birds in Madeira a difficulty, considering presence of them in Galapagos.
Has always felt that the case of man and his races is one and the same with animals and plants.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
15 Oct [1859]
Source of text:
DAR 115: 23
Summary:
Book finished some two weeks.
Feeling much better at Ilkley.
Lyell thinks favourably of book but "staggered" at lengths to which CD goes.
Which continental botanists should receive presentation copies?
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Murray
Date:
15 Oct [1859]
Source of text:
DAR R 143 (with R. F. Cooke correspondence)
Summary:
Discusses presentation copies [of the Origin].
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
[23 Oct 1859]
Source of text:
DAR 115: 24
Summary:
Congratulates JDH on finishing his introductory essay [to Flora Tasmaniae].
Lyell’s position on mutability appears more positive in his letters to JDH than in those to CD. Considers JDH a convert.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Hugh Falconer
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
25 Oct and 12 Nov 1859
Source of text:
DAR 47: 215–17
Summary:
The antlers of 800 deer of the glacial period have been found in a cave. They show great variety of form, but gradation from one to the other can be traced when all are laid out. Suggests CD study changes that have taken place in the species since glacial period.
Has ordered the wicked book [Origin] CD has been so long a-hatching.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
[27 Oct or 3 Nov] 1859
Source of text:
DAR 115: 25
Summary:
More detailed comments on JDH’s introductory essay [to Flora Tasmaniae]. Remarks on struggle of vegetation are admirable.
JDH will receive Origin in about ten days.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Stevens Henslow
Date:
11 Nov 1859
Source of text:
DAR 145: 100
Summary:
Sends the Origin to his "dear old master in natural history"; fears he will not approve of his pupil in this case. Asks for criticisms. If JSH is even in slight degree staggered on the immutability of species, CD is convinced that he will be more staggered on further reflection – this has been the process of his own mind.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury
Date:
[19 Nov 1859]
Source of text:
DAR 263: 16 (EH 88206465)
Summary:
Has told John Murray to send copy of the Origin. There are "many valid and weighty arguments against my notions".
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
John Lubbock, 4th baronet and 1st Baron Avebury
Date:
[22 Nov 1859]
Source of text:
DAR 263: 17 (EH 88206466)
Summary:
CD’s former admiration for Paley’s Natural theology [1802].
Cares not for reviews [of Origin] but for opinions of men like Lubbock, Huxley, Hooker, Lyell.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Kingsley
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
18 Nov 1859
Source of text:
DAR 98: B7–8
Summary:
Will judge CD’s book [Origin] free from two superstitions: the dogma of the permanent species and the need of an act of intervention to bring change.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Benjamin Carpenter
Date:
18 Nov [1859]
Source of text:
DAR 261.6: 1 (EH 88205918)
Summary:
Comments on WBC’s response to the Origin. Hopes he will review it. Acceptance will depend more on men like WBC, with well-established reputations, than on his own writings.
"Lyell thinks the chapter on the Imperfection of the Geological Record not exaggerated."
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
William Benjamin Carpenter
Date:
19 Nov [1859]
Source of text:
DAR 261.6: 2 (EH 88205919)
Summary:
Asks to hear WBC’s conclusion about the Origin when he has read it all. Knows only one believer so far – J. D. Hooker. Sometimes feels frightened that he may be a monomaniac.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
Date:
[20 Nov 1859]
Source of text:
DAR 115: 27
Summary:
Curious about author of review of Origin in Athenæum.
W. B. Carpenter has written and sounds converted, as has Quatrefages [de Bréau], who will "go a long way with" CD.
Has been ill and thus had time to brood about reception of book.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Charles Robert Darwin
To:
Caroline Sarah (Caroline) Darwin; Caroline Sarah (Caroline) Wedgwood
Date:
[after 21 Nov 1859]
Source of text:
DAR 153: 2
Summary:
Astounded she cares for his book [Origin] as much as she seems to.
Comments on variation among domestic dogs; believes domestic dog has descended from several wild species and those species from a single ancient ancestor.
Athenæum review is unfair.
Expects to convert four or five "really good judges".
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
From:
Joseph Dalton Hooker
To:
Charles Robert Darwin
Date:
[21 Nov 1859]
Source of text:
DAR 100: 135–6
Summary:
JDH’s congratulations on Origin.
Lyell believes S. P. Woodward wrote review in Athenæum.
Lyell’s and Huxley’s positive responses.
JDH has only plunged into a few chapters.
Contributor:
Darwin Correspondence Project
