To R. F. Cooke   24 June [1875]1

Abinger Hall | Wotton, Surrey

June 24th

My dear Sir

I have just received the last clean sheets for German Translation, so that book now all finished.— I hope that you will get copies quickly bound.—2 Please have all my copies cut.—3 Please despatch the first copies abroad.— How about price?4

I suppose that there will be none ready till after July 1st & that will reduce foreign postage by a half, except to France & U. States &c—5

I hope that you will put a rather conspicuous advertisement into Nature & Gardener’s Chronicle.—6

Please see about Stereotype Plates for U. States.—7 No doubt I shall require to know cost of stereotypes of woodcuts for German Translation.—

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

When I hear about price of book, be so good as to tell me, if you can, how soon you will distribute copies.

N.B. I return home early on July 6th.—8

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from R. F. Cooke, 26 June 1875.
2
Insectivorous plants was published on 2 July 1875 (see CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)). The German translation appeared in 1876 (see letter to J. V. Carus, 17 June [1875] and n. 3).
3
For CD’s complaint about books being sold with pages uncut, see Correspondence vol. 15, letter to Athenæum, 1 January 1867.
4
For CD’s presentation list for Insectivorous plants, see Appendix IV. The book was priced at 14s. (Publishers’ circular, 16 July 1875, p. 498).
5
The treaty for the formation of a general postal union, signed at Bern, Switzerland, on 9 October 1874, came into effect on 1 July 1875 (for an English version of the agreement, see Treaty on postal union). Both France and the United States were signatories of the treaty, although France only signed in May 1875 and evidently it had not yet been ratified there (see Treaty on postal union, p. 13). Under article 3 of the treaty, an additional charge was allowed for conveyance by sea exceeding 300 nautical miles, which would have applied to postage to the United States (see Treaty on postal union, p. 4).
6
An advertisement for Insectivorous plants and other recent works by CD appeared in Gardeners’ Chronicle, 3 July 1875, p. 26; the same advertisement was published in Nature, 8 July 1875, p. lxxviii.
7
John Murray had provided stereotypes of most of CD’s later works to his US publisher, D. Appleton & Co. (see, for example, Correspondence vol. 22, letter from D. Appleton & Co., [c. 19] November 1874).
8
CD stayed at Abinger Hall from 3 June to 6 July 1875 (see CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 Surrey] before del ‘Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.’
0.3 My] below del ‘My’
1.3 abroad] after del illeg
2.1 foreign] interl
7.1 early] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10028,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10028