From John Murray   25 May [1866]1

50A., Albemarle St. | W.

May 25

My Dear Sir

The printing of the new Edition of your work on Species is now nearly completed—& I write to inform you that I have directed that the Edition shall be limited to 1000 copies.2 Calculating, as far as I can upon the recent demand for the work that number may last from 3 to 5 years. I hope this will be agreeable to you.

I rejoice to hear so good an account of your improved health & am only sorry I had no opportunity of bearing witness to it myself—having missed seeing you at the Rl. Society Soirée3 & elsewhere— I remain My Dear Sir | Yours very faithfully | John Murray

Chas Darwin Esq

CD annotations4

2.1 I rejoice … improved] scored pencil
2.1 your improved] ‘Future book’ added pencil
Head of letter: ‘Additions Lithograph Plates) Advertise a little | ** Future Book [del pencil] | Copies— [after del illeg] I shall give away a good no.’ added pencil
1
The year is established by the references to the fourth edition of Origin and to the Royal Society of London soirée (see nn. 2 and 3, below).
2
Murray printed 1500 copies of the fourth edition of Origin (Peckham ed. 1959, p. 776); it was published in November 1866 (Publishers’ Circular 1866). See also letter from John Murray, 30 May [1866].
3
CD attended a reception at the Royal Society on 28 April 1866 (Emma Darwin’s diary (DAR 242)). See letter from J. D. Hooker, 13 May 1866 and n. 3.
4
CD’s annotations were made for his letter to John Murray, 28 May [1866].

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5099,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5099