To John Murray   4 May [1873]1

Down, Beckenham, Kent

May 4th

My dear Mr. Murray

I beg you not to announce again my book “on the Evil effects of Interbreeding &c,” for Heaven knows when it will be ready.2 The announcement took me quite by surprise. I am already plagued by foreign Translators, Reviewers, &c.

Yours very sincerely | Ch. Darwin

1
The year is established by the reference to the ‘Evil effects of Interbreeding’; CD began work on the topic on 3 February 1873 (see ‘Journal’ (Appendix II)) and Murray announced the work in April 1873 (see letter to ?, 4 May [1873] and n. 2).
2
See letter to ?, 4 May [1873] and n. 2. CD’s work was published in 1876 as Cross and self fertilisation.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-8897,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-8897