Select Items Holiday 2022 - 4 - “I Have Long Earnestly Wished For A New Edition Of The Origin In The United States”: Exceptionally Rare 1869 Four-Page Autograph Letter Written And Signed By Charles Darwin Concerning D. Appleton’s Publication Of The Second American Edition Of Origin Of Species And The Future Publication Of His Descent Of Man, Accompanied By The Second American Edition Of Origin Of Species 1. DARWIN, Charles. Autograph letter signed. WITH: On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or The Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life. Kent, United Kingdom and New York, 1869-70. Single sheet of unlined paper, measuring 5 by 8 inches folded; pp. 4, custom cloth portfolio. WITH: Octavo, original purple cloth, custom clamshell box. $125,000. Very rare and desirable signed autograph letter from Charles Darwin to American publisher D. Appleton’s London agent, Charles Layton, agreeing to a second American edition of the Origin of Species, with a slightly raised price, but requiring that Appleton also commit to an American edition of The Descent of Man. Accompanied by the second American edition of Origin of Species in original cloth. According to the Darwin Correspondent Project at Cambridge, the recipient of this letter was Charles Layton, the American publisher D. Appleton’s London agent. This letter refers to details regarding the publication of a new American edition of the Origin of Species. Darwin begins by clarifying that the proposal was for a stereotyped American edition as Darwin had been resistant to stereotyping his work in England. Darwin may have seen the first U.S. edition, published in 1860 from stereotypes of the British second edition. That would have made him aware of the decline in quality compared to conventional typesetting. In England, Darwin still wanted the best printing possible, while the overseas printing was of slightly less concern. In letter dated April 1869, Darwin had, in fact, approached Orange, Judd, & Co., who published the American version of Variation, about publishing a new American edition of the Origin. Here, however, Darwin only mentions potential correspondence with Asa Gray, a Harvard botanist with whom Darwin exchanged hundreds of letters. Darwin’s fame in America largely rested on Gray’s positive review of Origin in The Atlantic and his subsequent pro-evolution debates with zoologist Louis Agassiz, which Gray won handily. Darwin’s decision to mention Gray here was likely meant to emphasize Darwin’s influence in the American scientific community and to underline the scientific prominence of Darwin’s American supporters. This letter indicates Darwin’s willingness to go along with Appleton Select Items
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