To James Croll   19 July [1871]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

July 19th

My dear Sir

Mr Youmans of the U. States is very anxious to get a series of small monographs written by the most competent English authors on various subjects to be published in the U. States & I suppose in England. Mr Y. is in some way connected with the great firm of the Appletons in N. York.2 He has asked me to name some of the most competent men, & I have thought that you would excuse my giving your name, & this note as a kind of introduction. I should add that I do not know on what subject he wishes you to write. I do, however, know that some very good judges think highly of his scheme.

Pray excuse the liberty which I am taking & believe me | Yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin

P.S | Many thanks for some interesting papers which you kindly sent me some time ago.3

1
The year is established by the relationship between this letter and the letter from James Croll, 17 August 1871.
3
CD probably refers to Croll 1867a, 1867b, and 1868. All three parts of Croll 1868 are in the Darwin Pamphlet Collection–CUL and are annotated; Croll 1867a and 1867b are also in the collection. See Correspondence vol. 16, letter to James Croll, 19 September 1868 and n. 1, and letter from James Croll, 23 September 1868 and n. 2.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.00 most competent] ‘competent’ over illeg

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7874,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7874