To R. F. Cooke   4 November 1871

Leith Hill Place | Wotton Surrey. | (until Friday morning)

Nov 4. 1871

My dear Sir

From what you say please to let the new edit. be stereotyped.1 I hope to cause no delay.

I believe I asked Messrs Clowes to send me 3 or 4, & not 7 or 8 sheets, at a time.2 Please to print 500 or 1000 of the Descent of Man as you think fit. I shall not correct a word, except on the title-page the numbers of the 1000.3

At some future time, if the book goes on selling, I shd like to bring out a revised addition.4

Thanks for information about Mr Wright’s pamphlet5

yours very faithfully | Ch. Darwin

LS

1
Cooke had recommended that the sixth edition of Origin be stereotyped (see letter from R. F. Cooke, 1 November 1871 and n. 2).
2
The letter to the printers William Clowes & Sons regarding the proof-sheets of Origin 6th ed. has not been found.
3
See letter from R. F. Cooke, 1 November 1871 and n. 3. Small textual changes were made to the fourth printing of Descent, and the title page read ‘eighth thousand’ (Freeman 1977).
4
The second edition of Descent was published in 1874.
5
CD had requested the sales figures for Chauncey Wright’s review of Mivart 1871a (Wright 1871b). See letter from R. F. Cooke, 1 November 1871 and n. 5.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8052,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8052