Charles Darwin

With respect to your enquiry about my other works; in your list you give the same book twice over with different titles. My Journal of Researches &c was translated in 1844 into German by Dr. Diefenbach (Viewig & Sons Braunschweig) but the translation was made from the first English edition. The 2nd Ed. was considerably condensed & improved & was published under the above title of 'Journal of Researches' & has had so very large a sale in English (viz. 10,000 copies) that it might possibly be worth re-translating into German. The Zoology of the Voyage of the Beagle is a very large book with most expensive illustrations. My work on Cirripedia consists of 2 thick Vols with numerous illustrations. It is obviously out of the question to think of translating either of these works. My geological works consist of 3 thin Vols, now I believe always sold by Smith & Elder bound together in one thick Vol. These consist o 'The Structure & distribution of Coral Reefs.' This is a work of some interest, & if my name had formerly been known in Germany and have been worth translation. The other two parts consist of 'Geological observe. on Volcanic Island' & 'Geolog. Observ. on South America.' My work on the contrivances by which orchids are fertilized has been translated into German—at towards the close of last year I published in the Journal of the Linnean Soc. & separately a little book on the 'Movements & habits of Climbing Plants,' of which I send you a copy. I cannot suppose that this w'd be worth translation, although formerly 2 little books appeared in Germany on this subject, & I may add that this treatise has been highly spoken of by Botanists. If it were translated, which I repeat I do not think w'd answer, it might be worth while to add three papers by me published in the Linnean Journal on a very curious subject namely Dimorphism & Trimorphism in plans & which has been a good deal discussed in German scientific periodicals. I will write again as soon as I hear from Mr. Schweizerbart but I have hardly any doubt that he will agree to my proposals.” In very good condition, with intersecting folds (one vertical fold passing through a single letter of the signature), scattered soiling and creases (heaviest to last page), a tear to the top edge of the last page (passing through a few words in the first three lines), and a small area of paper loss to one corner. At this time Darwin was preparing his fourth English edition of Origin of Species at the request of his publisher, which was significantly revised from the original and  published in November 1866. After first publishing it in 1859, Darwin’s concepts and personal renown had spread worldwide throughout both the scientific and lay communities. His work was hotly debated throughout Germany, and Suchsland wrote to Darwin to suggest that he authorize a renewed translation—the last German version of Origin of Species having been published in 1863—as inaccuracies in the text led some of his theories to be widely misunderstood. This letter reveals both the diversity of scientific subjects in Darwin’s corpus and his business acumen in discussing the commercial viability of his own work..

Darwin tactfully sets him straight. See Darwin Correspondence Database, darwinproject /entry-13417; Burkhardt, Frederick, A Calendar of Correspondence of Charles Darwin, 1821-1882, Volume 1, p 562..

Ink remains bold and legible. Soiling on verso of blank integral page, especially at mail folds. Small folds at top and bottom left corners..

He was an early advocate of Darwinism and published Für Darwin in 1864, which argued that the theory of evolution by natural selection was correct based on his observation that Brazilian crustaceans and their larvae could be affected by adaptations at any growth stage. Impressed with this work, Darwin sponsored the translation and publication of English editions. Darwin released his fourth edition of On the Origin of Species in 1866, and in it incorporated the work of his closest scientific friends, including Muller’s research on crustacean embryology. Muller also had access to a diverse array of flora and fauna given his location in Brazil, and was able to provide Darwin with trusted information on subjects he otherwise had no access to, including detailed diagrams, drawings, specimens, and seeds. Studies of these made their way into several of Darwin’s future works. A remarkable letter associating Darwin with one of his most trusted colleagues..

Bonney may be the geologist Thomas George Bonney (1833-1923), who contributed the Appendix to the third edition of Darwin's The Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs, (Smith Elder & Co., 1889). Thomas George Bonney was elected a Fellow of the Geological Society of London in 1860, and his nomination form was signed by Charles Darwin ‘from personal knowledge’. From the nomination form and a letter at the Geological Society dated February 1860 it appears that the person organising Bonney’s nomination was the civil engineer Sir John Hawkshaw (1811-1891); in 1865 his son John Clarke Hawkshaw, (a contemporary of Charles and Emma's son George at Trinity College, Cambridge), married Cecily Mary Wedgwood, a niece of Charles and Emma Darwin. In conclusion, there is therefore a strong possibility that the letter here is to Sir John Hawkshaw and was written on 1 January [1860]..

The Litchfields & some of my other children are intensely curious to read your judgment. Believe me / yours ever gratefully / Charles Darwin. / I have written on opposite page my name if you think fit to paste it into the Life of E.D.; but I much wish that you would name one or more of the books, written wholly by myself, which I could treat in the same manner for you." Indeed, the dedication "From Charles Darwin / with kindest regards / Jan. 13th 1881" has been cut out and mounted on the flyleaf, and underneath Sir Leslie has added by way of explanation: "The letter upon the next page refers to a silly attack made upon Darwin by Butler of 'Erewhon' etc. I had given Darwin the obvious advice to take no more notice of the creature, D. having already made a sufficient acknowledgement of a trifling error. For details see 'Academy' of the period. LS. - Darwin afterwards sent me the 'Origin of the Species' & the Voyage of the Beagle." - The physician Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802), Charles's grandfather, espoused an early theory of evolution all his own, which he sketched, obliquely, in a question at the end of a long footnote to his popular poem "The Loves of the Plants" (1789). Samuel Butler rejected Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection. In his 1879 book "Evolution, Old and New" he accused Darwin of having borrowed heavily from and distorted Buffon, Erasmus Darwin and Lamarck, trying to reinstate these earlier thinkers and with them, the design argument. - Provenance: By descent to Leslie Stephen's daughter, the writer Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), who left it to her husband, the writer Leonard Woolf (1880-1969). Woolf had the book auctioned at Sotheby's a year before his death (sale of Feb. 29/20, 1968, lot 279); acquired by a northern Swedish collector, whose descendants returned it to the trade..

The rain, I know washes off the secretion & with it captured insects (& as you say seeds), which are retained by the incurved edges, which then become more incurved. It is a pretty experiment to put a row of flies or cabbage seeds on one margin of a flat leaf & see how the edge of the side curls over in from 12 to 24 hours. With cordial thanks, Yours very sincerely [...]". - Traces of folds; professionally repaired. On stationery with printed address..

- Is there any safe place where I could leave it in London for you, or shall I return it by a messenger? - I believe I did once before ask you, whether you have any other fossil Cirripedia. - To save you the trouble of answering, I will assume, without I hear to the contrary that Mr Sowerby may figure it. - With my best thanks | I remain dear Sir | Yours faithfully | C. Darwin | I assure you that it has not been idleness which has delayed me, but numbers of specimens of other fossil Cirri[pe]des". - We are able to date this letter precisely because August 1850 was the only month with a 'Thursday 8th' in the period between the Palaeontographical Society's decision to publish Fossil Cirripedia and the publication of the first volume of this work in 1851, in which Loricula pulchella is described (Fossil Cirripedia (1851): 81-6). - James de Carle Sowerby drew all the figures of the specimens in the first volume of Fossil Cirripedia. At the time of writing, Darwin does not seem to have known that George Brettingham Sowerby Jr had described and figured this particular specimen in 1843. However, since that time Wetherell had cleared away more material from the specimen, revealing features not seen by G.B. Sowerby Jr, and a new drawing was made for Darwin's description (Fossil Cirripedia (1851): 81). (Darwin Correspondence Project). - Published by the Darwin Correspondence Project, University of Cambridge, as Letter no. DCP-LETT-1267. - Slight damage to paper (no loss to text) and in some parts professionally restored..