WCP2232

Letter (WCP2232.2122)

[1]

67 Bedford G[arde]ns

Kensington

13 Dec 1869

My dear Wallace

Mr Stanford1 has passed on to me your note of 12th. Inst[ant].2

You are more courteous than there is any need for. — I find from my publisher[,]3 the entrepreneur of the Journal of Travel4 (whom I saw on the subject today) that he had never given you anything for [2] the article5 — therefore in any view it was y[ou]r. own to deal with— But I understand the law of copyright in such matters to be that unless an author formally signs away the copyright of anything it remains with him. — So I was told by one learned in the law. — At any rate you are most welcome to any authority you think you need. — At our interview today sentence of death (w[hic]h. has been hanging [3] over it for a long time) was finally pronounced on the Journal of Travel[.]

I told the publisher that he ought to pay you— He made some denial about it being an article read at the Br[itish]. assoc[iation].6 — but I hope I overruled him, — at any rate he promised to consider it on his return to L[on]don, when I hope he will do as I have told him, & as I asked him [4] at the time.

Believe me | Yours truly | Andw Murray [signature]

1
Stanford, Edward (1827-1904). British publisher, mapmaker and bookseller.
2
ARW's letter of 12 December 1869 is presumed missing.
3
See endnote 1.
4
The Journal of Travel and Natural History was a short-lived naturalist journal founded in February 1868 and financed by Edward Stanford. Andrew Murray was the sole editor of the journal which became defunct in December 1869. (Murray, A. (Ed.) 1868. Journal of Travel and Natural History).
5
Wallace, A. R. 1868. A Theory of Birds' Nests: Shewing the Relation of Certain Sexual Differences of Colour in Birds to their Mode of Nidification. Journal of Travel and Natural History. 1: 73-89.
6
ARW's paper was originally titled "On Birds' Nests and Their Plumage; Or the Relation Between Sexual Differences of Colour and the Mode of Nidification in Birds" and presented to the British Association for the Advancement of Science meeting, section D., Biology, 9 September, Dundee. The published article in the Journal of Travel and Natural History was a substantially expanded version. (Wallace, A. R. 1868. On Birds' Nests and Their Plumage; Or the Relation Between Sexual Differences of Colour and the Mode of Nidification in Birds. Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 37: 97).

Editorial information

Status: Edited (but not proofed) transcription [Letter (WCP2232.2122)]

For more information about the transcriptions and metadata, see https://wallaceletters.myspecies.info/content/epsilon

Revision history

Transcribed by Cooper, Rod [2015-03-05] Transcription checked by Benny, Ruth [2015-03-05] Transcription checked by Sherwood, Danni [2020-08-10] Transcription checked by Beros, Matt [2020-09-15]

Please cite as “WCP2232,” in Beccaloni, G. W. (ed.), Ɛpsilon: The Alfred Russel Wallace Collection accessed on 5 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2232