To John Murray   12 October [1860]¹

The year is given by CD’s wish to add a historical preface to the next English edition of Origin (see n. 4, below).

A payment of £ 42 18s. 8d., made out to John Murray, is recorded in CD’s Account book (Down House MS) on 12 October 1860. The entry reads: ‘Murray for copies of Origin (subtract from the last Bill & do not class)’. It appears that CD was paying Murray for presentation copies of the second edition of Origin (see Correspondence vol.8, Appendix III). He had already received from Murray half of the profits owed to him on the sale of the second edition: his Account book records that £ 318 6s. 8d. was paid to him on 9 July 1860. His note indicates that his net profit at that time was £ 275 8s. A further payment from Murray brought the total earnings from sales of the second edition to £ 636 13s. 4d. (see ‘Journal’; Appendix II).

Three thousand copies of the second edition of Origin had been printed. The book was issued in January 1860.

The third edition of Origin was published in April 1861. It includes a short historical sketch similar to the one that had already been published in both the American and German editions in 1860 (see letters to Asa Gray, 28 January [1860], and to H. G. Bronn, 14 February [1860]).