Ɛpsilon

To R. F. Cooke   19 September [1876]1

Down, Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station, Orpington. S. E. R.

Sept. 19th

My dear Sir

Many thanks. I have now received all the slips and these amount to p. 233, and I daresay you know whether a slip is equal to 2 pages or rather more,—I think it equals 2 pages, if so book will be 467 pages long without index.2

I have often misled you but I doubt possibility of 1500 being sold until the lapse of some years.3 It will be capital if Messrs Clowes will keep type up.4

No illustrations, except 1 more diagram.5

With thanks | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin.

I am glad you are going to have some rest.

Copy

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter to R. F. Cooke, 16 September 1876.
2
CD was correcting proof-sheets of Cross and self fertilisation (see letter to R. F. Cooke, 16 September 1876 and n. 1). Not counting the preliminaries and index, the published version was 469 pages long.
3
Cross and self fertilisation was published in December 1876 in an edition of 1500 copies, all of which were sold by the end of the year (DAR 210.11: 6).
4
William Clowes & Sons were printers to John Murray. CD wanted Clowes to keep the type up so that future additions or corrections for a new edition could be easily made without having to reset the whole book. In the event, a second edition, with corrections, was produced in 1878 (Cross and self fertilisation 2d ed.).
5
In the published version, there is one diagram (Cross and self fertilisation, p. 53).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10610,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10610