From R. F. Cooke   26 April 1871

50a, Albemarle Street, London, W.

April 26 1871

My dear Sir

I have seen & made enquiries as to the Woodburytype & Heliotype process & expenses & the result is, that for the purpose of book illustration I think the latter has the advantage.1

From the conversation I had at Edwards & Kidd I imagine, your plates cd. be done, including paper & print about 3 farthings each & no mounting is required.2

If however you can send up one of your subjects & tell them exactly the scale you require they will give an exact estimate of price, as it will come cheaper, according to the number of copies printed.

We have already despatched the copy of the “Descent” to Loescher of Turin & tomorrow we will send off the copy to Profr. Carus of Leipzig.3

As regards the cheap edition of Origin, if it be done, we should like to have it ready for our Trade sale in Novr. next.

I am now working out, an estimate for it, to see what it can be sold for & how many must be printed to make it pay.4

If I can manage it I will go again to Edwards & Kidd, in the hope of seeing one of the principals, & obtain more information, as I imagine there is the expense of the negatives, extra.

Yours faithfully | Robt. Cooke

The “Times” has not injured the sale, it is going on nicely.5

C. Darwin Esq

CD annotations

2.2 including … require 3.2] scored blue crayon
4.1 We have … going on nicely. 9.1] crossed pencil
Top of letter: ‘(Are negative necessary)’6pencil
2
Cooke refers to the plates for Expression, which were produced by Edwards and Kidd.
3
The rights for the Italian translation of Descent (Lessona trans. 1871) were later transferred from Ermanno Loescher to Luigi Pomba (see letter from Luigi Pomba, 6 May 1871). Julius Victor Carus was translating Descent into German (Carus trans. 1871). See letter from John Murray, 12 April [1871] and n. 2, and letter to J. V. Carus, 25 April [1871].
4
Origin 6th ed. was not published until February 1872 (see Freeman 1977). The ledgers for all six editions of Origin are reproduced in Peckham ed. 1959, pp. 775–85.
6
This annotation may be a note for a letter to R. F. Cooke that has not been found; see letter from R. F. Cooke, 28 April 1871.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7719,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7719