To Ernst Krause   5 [May] 18791

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

April 5th. 79

My dear Sir

I forgot to say one thing in my former note.—2 I formerly offered to have an M.S. copy made of my “Preliminary Notice”; but I think it will be a better plan for you to wait till I get the first proof-sheets. For the man whom I employ to copy has only a short time daily for the work, & I did not intend to have the letters & some extracts copied at all. Moreover I always correct my M.S. & the proofs heavily. For these various reasons I think it wd be the best plan for you to wait till I can send you corrected proofs. I may repeat that I am quite doubtful whether the Preliminary Notice will be worth translating, as it is written for the English Public.— If, however, you much wish it I will have a second copy of the M.S made.3

I suppose that you will not object to a French Translation of the little book, for I mentioned incidentally to Reinwald what I was doing & he said that he wd. bring out a French Translation.4

I advised him to wait to see whether it is worth translating. I daresay Mess Appleton of New York will wish for an American edition, & I presume you will not object.—5 Pray let me hear your decision. about the second copy.

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

As there has been a break in my experimental work I have begun the Preliminary & Notice & written a dozen pages.—6

1
The month is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from Ernst Krause, 8 May 1879. CD evidently wrote April instead of May by mistake.
3
CD was preparing a biographical sketch of Erasmus Darwin (1731–1802) as a preliminary notice to the English translation of Krause’s work (Krause 1879a; Erasmus Darwin). Ebenezer Norman was CD’s copyist. CD’s notice was included in the German edition (Krause 1880, pp. 1–72).
4
No French translation was published. Charles-Ferdinand Reinwald was CD’s publisher in Paris.
5
D. Appleton & Co. brought out a US edition in 1880, using the stereotypes of Erasmus Darwin (Erasmus Darwin US ed.).
6
In his ‘Journal’ (Appendix II), CD recorded that he spent the whole of 1879 ‘on circumnutating movements of plants, except about 6 weeks on Life of Erasmus Darwin’.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added
1.2 a better] ‘a’ interl
1.5 & the proofs] interl
1.9 wish it] ‘it’ interl
3.2 of New York] interl
3.2 American] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-11978,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-11978