Footnotes

DARWIN TO MURRAY, ARRANGING PUBLICATION OF 'THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES' IN THE UNITED STATES: the Origin had been published by Murray on 24 November, the second edition appearing on 7 January. Asa Gray hoped to have the book published by Ticknor & Fields of Boston, with Darwin anxious that they use the revised text of the second edition, as this letter makes plain. In the event Gray was beaten to it by two New York publishers, Appleton and Harpers; as he told Darwin on 23 January: "Well, all looked pretty well, when, lo, we found that a 2d New York publishing house had announced a reprint also! I wrote, then to both N.Y. publishers, asking them to give way to the author & his reprint of a revised edition. I got answer from the Harpers' that they withdrew, – from the Appletons that they had got the book out – (and the next day I saw a copy); but that 'if the work should have any considerable sale we certainly shall be disposed to pay the author reasonably & liberally'".

Our letter, which is not recorded by the Darwin Correspondence Project, comes from an album with other letters addressed to John Murray, to whom it is also clearly addressed. It appears to have been prompted by a letter to Darwin by Gray stating that the American publishers "will not wait for electrotypes of the cuts" (Letter 2563, tentatively assigned a date of 17 January but, from the evidence of our letter, written several weeks earlier). Darwin visited London between Tuesday 24 January and Friday 27 January 1860, staying, as usual when in London, with his brother Erasmus at 57 Queen Anne Street, Cavendish Square. 4 Chester Place, Regent's Park, was not far away and was the house of his cousin and sister-in-law Sarah Elizabeth Wedgwood. The only time he is recorded as staying there is from 25 August to 1 September 1864, which would posit an alternative date of Wednesday 31 September 1864; but this would make no sense of any of the references in the letter. It seems therefore that Darwin found himself at Chester Place on the morning of 25 January 1860 before going on to see Murray. That evening he was to write again to Murray (from Queen Anne Street) referring to that day's business and saying that he has just received another letter from Gray, telling him the American edition is due out at any moment. Among the business discussed was their decision to go to press with a reissue of the one-volume Journal of Researches, originally published as part of the three-volume Narrative of the... Beagle, which presumably is the "little Book" and "new Book" referred to in our letter. At the foot of the last page, one of Murray's clerks has noted in pencil "340 on hand".