Ɛpsilon

From R. F. Cooke   30 August 1875

50A, Albemarle Street, London, W.

Augt. 30 1875

My dear Sir

I am very much vexed about the proofs of the new edition of “Animals & Plants” but when I wrote to Messrs. Clowes & Sons on the subject I was not aware of your wishes.1

We are continually in the habit of sending out proofs to authors on larger paper, in the form of slips, so that there may be plenty of margin, so that it was not on the score of extra expense that I wrote.

Your works (& we have had just now 3 in hand) have been under my immediate management & I know all about them, but as I may be away when “Animals & Plants” are sent to press, I was afraid by having the proofs sent here on demy 8vo. paper instead of Crown 8vo., that in my absence (& as the last edition was on the larger size), a wrong sized paper would be ordered.2 It was to avoid a mistake that I asked Clowes to send our proofs on the Crown paper.

But this shall now be all arranged before I go for my holiday, next week, as I will at once give directions about the paper & I shall have a paper not quite so stout as Insectivorous Plants, as the Volumes will average 500 pages each.

You do not say whether Appletons are to have stereotypes of this new edition.3

1500 No will be right of Climbing Plants— a less No will not do with yr name.

Regretting very much the annoyance about the proofs | I am | Faithfully Yours | Robt. Cooke

Chas. Darwin Esq

1
See letter to R. F. Cooke, 29 August [1875]. CD had requested that the printers, William Clowes & Sons, provide proofs of Variation 2d ed. on wider paper.
2
In addition to Variation 2d ed., John Murray was publishing Climbing plants 2d ed. and reprinting Insectivorous plants (third thousand); additional print runs of Descent 2d ed. (eleventh thousand), and of Origin 6th ed. also appeared during the year, but from stereotypes (Freeman 1977; on the difficulties of establishing the history of the reprints of Origin, see especially pp. 80–1). On the change in paper size between the first and second editions of Variation, see the letter from R. F. Cooke, 6 August 1875 and n. 3.
3
Cooke had asked CD in his letter of 27 August 1875 whether D. Appleton & Co. wanted to print a new US edition from stereotypes of Variation 2d ed.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10139,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10139