Ɛpsilon

To John Murray   16 February [1875]1

Down, | Beckenham, Kent. | Railway Station | Orpington. S.E.R.

Feb. 16th

My dear Sir

On account of a Polish Translation, forming a part of a series of all my books, I much want to know whether you think it worth while to bring out another Edit of the “Variation of Animals & Plants under Domestication”.2 In this case I would prepare (as soon as my present book is printed) notes for each Chapter, but I will not undertake this considerable labour merely for the Polish Edit.—

If you cannot give me a definite answer, I will write & tell the Translator. What he is to do for a copy to translate, I do not know, for I do not remember to have seen a copy on sale in any second-hand list—

My dear Sir | Yours sincerely | Ch. Darwin

Does the new Edit. of the Descent sell at all well?3

1
The year is established by the reference to Descent 2d ed. (see n. 4, below).
2
The first Polish translation of Variation appeared only in 1888–9 (Freeman 1977). Charles Darwin’s gesammelte Werke (Carus trans. 1875–87) was the only collected edition of CD’s works in any language produced in the nineteenth century.
3
Descent 2d ed. was published in November 1874 (Correspondence vol. 22, letter from R. F. Cooke, 12 November 1874).

Manuscript Alterations and Comments

1.5 considerable] interl
2.3 on sale] interl

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-9857,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-9857