Ɛpsilon

To D. Appleton & Co.   5 November 1874

November 5 1874

Messrs Appleton | New York | Messrs Appleton | New York

Dear Sir

I have just printed a new Edit of my Descent of Man, 1 one Vol which I think is greatly improved, & much added to, as you will see by enclosed Preface & lists of chief additions.1

The last page of book including Index is 688.—

I am very anxious that this improved Edit shd. circulate in America. If I may judge from many letters from the U. States, increased interest is being felt in my views. Therefore if the new Edit was sold cheaper & advertised as much revised & added to, I shd hope it would sell. Mr Murray will supply the [alterations at cost specimen] stereotype Plates, (including all the woodcuts, some of which are copies & for 3 qu new) for 50£.2

p. 688

Now I shall be much pleased if I can persuade you as soon as all copies on hand are sold to publish the new Edit.—

Hoping for a favourable answer | I remain Dear Sir | Yours very faithfully,

Give last page of Index & specimen of type

I shall go to press in a few months with a new book but whether it will be worth your republishing, I know not.— It is chiefly on carnivorous plants, about which there has been some talk in popular literature.3

ADraft

1
CD had finished checking the proof-sheets of Descent 2d ed. (see letter to J. V. Carus, 30 October 1874 and n. 1). The second edition was published in one volume in November 1874 (see letter from R. F. Cooke, 12 November 1874 and n. 4).
2
John Murray was the publisher of Descent 2d ed., which contained three new woodcuts (see letter to John Murray, 4 April 1874 and n. 4). D. Appleton & Co. published the second edition of Descent in New York in 1875 (Descent 2d US ed.), using Murray’s stereotype plates (Freeman 1977).
3
Insectivorous plants was published by Murray in London on 2 July 1875; D. Appleton & Co. published the work in New York in 1875 (Insectivorous plants US ed.), using Murray’s stereotype plates. See Freeman 1977. The recent popular literature to which CD refers might have included the articles ‘The carnivorous habits of certain plants’ and ‘The butterwort a carnivorous plant’ in Hardwicke’s Science Gossip (1874): 230–3 and 235, and in America, the notice in Scientific American, 4 April 1874, in which, under the heading ‘Carnivorous plants’, an account was given of Mary Treat’s publication on the sundew in American Naturalist (Treat 1873).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

0.1 November 5 1874] added & circled pencil
0.2 Messrs … York] 1st blue crayon; 2d pencil circled pencil
1.1 1 one Vol] interl
1.2 enclosed] after caret
1.2 Preface &] interl
2.1 The … 688.—] added
2.1 book including] interl
3.2 the U. States] above del ‘your country’
3.3 Therefore … sell. 3.4] transposed from after ‘50£.’
3.4 Mr] after del ‘There are’
3.4 the [alterations at cost specimen]] interl
3.5 woodcuts … copies &] above del ‘stereoty’
3.6 new)] parenthesis after del ‘hope that’
4.1 p. 688] added in margin
5.1 shall … if] above del ‘hope that’
5.1 can] above del ‘may’; before del ‘be able’
6.1 publish … Edit] above del ‘break up the old plates & use the new ones’
6.2 Hoping for] above del ‘Trusting to receive’
8.2 know not] above del ‘can form no opinion’
8.3 literature.] full stop altered from comma, before del ‘but very few book’

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9713,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9713