To R. F. Cooke   4 July [1875]1

(Abinger Hall)

July 4th

Home on the 6th

My dear Sir

I am uncommonly glad about the sale, & have detected no errata for I have not opened the book since it has been printed.— Your first sentence “You are to blame.”—has made me snigger, for I had hard work to persuade Mr. Murray to print 1250 instead of 1000; though I must own that I thought 1250 wd. have lasted for eternity.2

I do not believe that the sale will ultimately be large. Very many thanks about Messrs Appleton; I hope that you will see that the plates are despatched soon. to his agent Mr Layton(?) in the city.—3

Will you kindly inform Mr Reinwald of price of stereotypes of wood-blocks; I sent him the copy, as he has published translations of all my books, & pays me a trifle.—4 A German translation is preparing, so Herr Koch will require stereotypes.5

It is likely that a Russian Translation will appear.—6

I am most heartily glad of the Sale.—

My dear Sir | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from R. F. Cooke, 3 July 1875.
2
See letter from R. F. Cooke, 3 July 1875 and n. 1. CD’s publisher, John Murray, had proposed printing 1000 copies of Insectivorous plants; CD then offered to pay the printing costs for an additional 250 copies (letter from John Murray, 1 May [1875], and letter to John Murray, 3 May 1875).
3
See letter from R. F. Cooke, 3 July 1875 and n. 3. Charles Layton was the agent of CD’s US publisher, D. Appleton & Co.
4
Charles-Ferdinand Reinwald published the French translation of Insectivorous plants (Barbier trans. 1877). His name is on the presentation list for the book (see Appendix IV). On the fees paid for French translations of CD’s works, see Correspondence vol. 20, letter to R. F. Cooke, [25 October 1872].
5
Eduard Koch was director of E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagsbuchhandlung, which published the German translation of Insectivorous plants (Carus trans. 1876a).
6
The Russian translation of Insectivorous plants was published in 1876 (Insectivorous plants Russian trans. 1876).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.4 own that] ‘that’ interl
2.1 believe that] ‘that’ interl
2.2 to his agent 2.3] ‘to’ over ‘—’
3.1 of price] ‘of’ after del ‘th’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10041,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10041