From R. F. Cooke   12 November 1874

50a, Albemarle Street, London. W.

Nov 12 1874

My dear Sir

We have just recd. from the binder a copy of the new edition of the “Descent of Man” in 1 Vol with the edges cut.1

It was Mr Murray’s intention to make the price 12/-, but now we see it, we feel that 9/- is the most we can venture to charge the public for it, as by the side of Lyell’s Students Geoly 9/ & yr own “Origin” a 7/6 it will not stand a higher price.2 This will necessarily reduce the profits on this edition of 2000 Copies to almost Nil.

The work is however stereotyped & if it takes, future editions will return very good profits.3

Do you approve therefore of 9/-?

Our Sale is tomorrow,4 so reply by return of post or telegraph

Yours faithfully | Robt. Cooke

Chas. Darwin Esq

1
Descent 2d ed. was published as a single volume, unlike Descent, which had appeared in two volumes. In 1867, CD had publicly declared his preference for books with cut pages (see Correspondence vol. 15, letter to Athenæum, 1 January 1867 and n. 1).
2
John Murray was the publisher of Origin 6th ed. and the second edition of Charles Lyell’s The student’s elements of geology (C. Lyell 1874).
3
Stereotyped plates could be kept and reused, thereby minimising the typesetting costs of future editions.
4
The publisher John Murray customarily held a ‘sale dinner’ in November, at which he sold books at a discount to the main booksellers (Murray 1908–9, p. 540).

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9717,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9717