To R. F. Cooke   4 August 1872

Down, | Beckenham, Kent.

Aug 4 1872

My dear Sir

I am particularly obliged for all your clear answers to my queries.1

Do you agree to my telling Messrs Appleton that you will supply Cliches of the woodcuts for £10, & stereotypes of the text for 5£ above prior cost or £45 (i.e. £55 for the text & cuts)?2 I am aware that this gives us conjointly very small profit; but from what you tell me of the cost of setting up the book in type, it wd be no advantage to Messrs A. to offer them the plates at a much higher cost, & as they paid me so liberally for the Descent I wish to act liberally towards them.3

I can see that it is hard upon you, but then there wd be no profit if the book were set up in type.4 Please to let me hear as soon as you can in answer, & about the cost per 1000 of copies of the heliotype plates. I will then at once write to Messrs A & make them the offer; & I will then write to all the foreign editors to know how many copies of the Heliotypes they will require, & that they must procure them by pre-payment to you. I have advised Kowalewsky not to print so large an ed. as 4000, but know not what he will determine. I have spoken to him about payment to myself.5

I think I shall make a present of the right of translation to Victor Carus, who is poor & whom I greatly respect.—6 Reinwald wished for a French translation some time ago, but I have not heard from him lately, & I am not much esteemed in France—7 I know nothing as yet about other translations. I do not suppose all the proofs will be finished before the end of the month, as I must soon have a week’s rest. As soon as I get clean sheets I will see about the index. I shd prefer Mr Dallas, & I shd think he wd esteem yr offer of £8 as very liberal.8

My dear Sir | yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

LS(A)

3
On CD’s profits for the US edition of Descent, see the letter to D. Appleton & Co., 16 March 1872.
4
D. Appleton & Co. had specified that they could only pay CD ten per cent of the gross profits if CD could secure the ‘casts’, or stereotypes, of future publications from his London publisher (see letter from D. Appleton & Co., 23 February 1872).
5
Vladimir Onufrievich Kovalevsky was preparing the Russian translation of Expression (see letter from R. F. Cooke, 1 August 1872 and n. 5). He had visited CD sometime before mid-July (Davitashvili 1951, p. 157).
6
Julius Victor Carus was translating Expression into German.
7
No letter from the French publisher Charles-Ferdinand Reinwald about Expression has been found before that of 13 September 1872; CD’s last letter from him was that of 1 February 1871 (Correspondence vol. 19); it concerned the French translation of Descent.

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

2.00 5£ … or] interl in CD’s hand
2.00 text & cuts] in CD’s hand above del ‘whole’
3.5 of the Heliotypes] interl in CD’s hand
4.1 who … respect.— 4.2] added in CD’s hand

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8451,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8451