To John Murray   29 January [1867]

Down. | Bromley. | Kent. S.E.

Jan 29th

My dear Sir

I agree to your proposal about half profits. You must be the best judge, but I cannot avoid thinking that you will make a mistake if you print only 750 copies.1 I beg you earnestly to get M.S. back immediately & let me hear immediately & I will send a servant the same day for it. I want to mark the passages for small type & to make some correction, before leaving home for a week’s rest & I must pay my visit in about a weeks time.—2

In Haste | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

P.S. You will understand that I agree for half profits only for the first Edition, for with the weakness of an author I estimate my book at a higher value than you do.—

Endorsement: ‘1867. Jany 29’

1
For Murray’s proposals about his payment to CD for Variation and the numbers of copies he would print, see the letter from John Murray, 28 January [1867].
2
In his letter of 28 January [1867], Murray said he hoped to send the manuscript to CD in the coming week. CD visited his brother, Erasmus Alvey Darwin, in London from 13 to 21 February 1866 (see ‘Journal’ (Correspondence vol. 15, Appendix II)).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.3 hear immediately] ‘immediately’ interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-5382,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-5382