Ɛpsilon

To John Murray   13 March 1871

Down, Bromley, Kent, S.E.

Mar. 13, 1871.

My dear Mr. Murray

It is grand news about the continental sale of the book, and the 2000 copies.1

Please to send 10 copies as by the enclosed paper.

You say “you shall have copies for yourself as before.” I suppose you hardly mean that I am to have the same magnificent supply as before.2 I dare say I shall be compelled to give away some more copies in return for assistance;3 if I do not give away all the copies which you now allow me I shall reduce a little the fearful number of copies I have already given away and shall have to pay for.

I am delighted at the success of my book as yet.

Believe me | Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Copy

1
CD refers to Descent. See letter from John Murray, 9 March [1871]. The copyist probably mistranscribed as ‘continental’ the word ‘continued’. Murray did not sell copies in bulk to European countries.
2
Murray had given CD thirty copies of the first printing (see CD’s annotation to letter from John Murray, 9 March [1871]).
3
There are six additional names on the verso of CD’s presentation list for Descent (see Correspondence vol. 19, Appendix IV).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7577,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7577