Ɛpsilon

To Ernst Krause   30 July 1880

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

July 30th 1880

My dear Sir

I received this morning the enclosed account, which be so kind as to return to me. The profit is lamentably small viz 9£"15s"5d, which I herewith transmit by cheque1   You will see 218 copies are still unsold, & whether they ever will be sold, I cannot conjecture. We shall know next year & then the profit of any sale shall be transmitted to you.—

I have heard nothing from the U. States about the sale of the book by Mess. Appleton.—2

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

[Enclosure]

De

Life of Dr. Erasmus Darwin

Cr

1879 Dec

To Printing 1000 No  68 9 10 By 1000 copies

1879 Dec

" 14 Rms Dble Crown 21 10 –  5 Stati’s Hall3

" Binding 1000 Copies 26 12 –  12 Author

" Autotype Co. for – – –  37 Reviews

" 3000 Portraits 18 2 11  272 218 in Hand June 1880

" Cooper Engraving 5 15 –  728 Sold viz

" Advertising 51 9 6  604 Trade 25 as 24 5/ 145 – –

" Can ‘Allow’ to agent 2 1 7  124 do — — 5/4 32 – –

" Balance Profit 14 13 2  728

/  By D Appleton for a | Set of Stereo-plates 13 8 6

/  By H Schultze for | 2000 Portraits 16 5 –

/  2000 Illustratns. 2pp 5 – –

  211 13 6  211 13 6

1880 June By 218 on hand | –Author’s 2/3 Profit 9 15 5

1
The enclosure was a statement of profits from the sale of Erasmus Darwin; this statement, along with statements for CD’s other works published by John Murray, is in DAR 210.11: 18. An entry in CD’s Account books–banking account (Down House MS), dated 30 July 1880, records a payment of £9 15s. 5d. under the heading ‘E. Krause profit of Era. Darwin (I have subtracted amt paid from Murray)’. The part in parentheses (square brackets in ms) refers to the fact that CD had received a single payment from Murray for profits on all his books of £152 12s. 9d. from which he subtracted the profit for Erasmus Darwin.
2
D. Appleton & Co published Erasmus Darwin US ed.
3
Stationers’ Hall distributed copies to the copyright libraries of the United Kingdom (Seville 1999, pp. 233, 262).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 (Railway … S.E.R.)] parentheses added
1.3 cannot] after del ‘do’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-12675,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-12675