To John Murray   17 August [1871]1

Haredene | Albury | Guildford

Aug 17th.

My dear Sir

I am going to beg a favour from you, which I know you hate granting, but as you have published so many books for me,2 I do not think it unfair to ask you. It is to publish a pamphlet at my expence reprinted from the N. American Rev. in defence of my views versus Mivart.3 Before receiving permission from America I asked Messrs. Clowes for an estimate for 750 copies; & they said for paper printing & stitching it would be about £15.4 I do not suppose that more than a score of copies would be sold, but I want you to send copies to all reviews, & to adverti⁠⟨⁠se⁠⟩⁠ it to the extent of £5 or 6 in Nature etc; & this is all the trouble that I should give you, as I could distribute numerous private copies myself.5 Please send me a line here as soon as you conveniently can. I suppose I had better send the copy direct to Clowes.

My dear Sir, | yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

P.S. How does the Descent go off?6

I have been very unwell of late & am still so & therefore do not know when I shall have finished the new edit of the Origin.7

Have you printed any more copies of the Descent? & how many?8

LS

1
The year is established by the address; the Darwins stayed at Haredene from 28 July to 25 August 1871 (CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
2
John Murray’s firm had published the second edition of Journal of researches, the five English editions of Origin, Orchids, Variation, and Descent (Freeman 1977).
3
See letter to Chauncey Wright, 17 July [1871] and n. 2. Wright had published a review (Wright 1871a) in the North American Review of St George Jackson Mivart’s criticisms of the theory of natural selection (Mivart 1871b). Wright’s review was republished by John Murray as a pamphlet (Wright 1871b).
4
No correspondence with the printing firm of William Clowes & Sons about reprinting Wright’s paper has been found. There is an entry in CD’s Classed account books (Down House MS) for 24 February 1872 of £15 14s. for ‘Clowes printing Darwinism’ (Darwinism was the title of Wright’s reprinted paper).
5
Darwinism (Wright 1871b) is listed under ‘Books received’ in Nature, 26 October 1871, p. 500.
6
Descent had been published by John Murray on 24 February 1871 (Freeman 1977).
7
CD had been revising Origin since 18 June 1871; the manuscript of the sixth edition was completed on 29 October 1871 (see CD’s ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)).
8
The first print run of Descent was 2500 copies with a second printing of 2000 in March 1871; the third printing was issued in April but the fourth did not appear until December (Freeman 1977).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-7907,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-7907