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To Arnold Dodel-Port   15 June 1878

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

June 15 1878

Dear Sir

I have received your letter & the kind present of the Atlas. The drawings are magnificent, & in those cases in which I can judge, faithful. The work wd be quite invaluable to any one who has to lecture. If any one applies to me (my son is at Würzburg) I will recommend the publication of the work in England, in the strongest possible terms.1

I cannot give any other aid as on account of my health I live a most retired life. London publishers seldom publish translations of continental works, & why this shd be so I cannot explain. As your work is an educational one, the greatest of the London publishers, Messrs Longman & Co, wd perhaps take it up.2

I am really ashamed that you shd have sent me so many fine plates; & I hope that you will allow me to become a regular subscriber to the work.

I heartily wish that it may be successful & I remain dear Sir | yours faithfully | Charles Darwin

P.S. Very few English persons can read the German character, & my daughter3 had great difficulty in decyphering your letter.

LS

1
See letter from Arnold Dodel-Port, 12 June 1878. Dodel-Port had sent the first part of his Anatomisch-physiologischer Atlas der Botanik (Dodel-Port and Dodel-Port 1878–83) and had warned CD and Francis Darwin that they might be approached by a publisher about an English translation.
2
The English translation of the explanatory texts for the atlas was published by W. & A. K. Johnston (Dodel-Port and Dodel-Port 1880–3).
3
See letter from Arnold Dodel-Port, 12 June 1878; a translation in the hand of CD’s daughter Elizabeth Darwin follows Dodel-Port’s letter.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11554,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11554