Charles Darwin's publisher John Murray played an important, if often underrated, role in bringing his theories to the public. As their letters and publishing archives show they had a friendly, business like and successful relationship. This was despite fundamental scientific and religious differences between the men. In addition to publishing Darwin, Murray also published many of the critical and supportive works and reviews which Darwin's own works excited.
‘Darwin and his publisher’ by John Murray, J.P., D.L., F.S.A. in Science Progress in the Twentieth Century a Quarterly Journal of Scientific Work and Thought, edited by AlcockN HMD, and FreemanW G BSc FLS, published by John Murray, Volume III, No.12 April 1909, pp. 537–543.
2.
Science Progress was published by John Murray (1906–1955).
3.
DarwinCharles, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (1859).
4.
DarwinCharles, Narrative of the surveying voyages of His Majesty's ships Adventure and Beagle between the years 1826 and 1836, describing their examination of the Southern Shores of South America, and the Beagle's circumnavigation of the Globe, volume III: Journal and Remarks, 1832–1836 (1839).
5.
DarwinCharles, Journal of researches into the natural history and geology of the countries visited during the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle round the world (1845).
6.
The work was initially issued in three monthly parts (numbers XXII, XXIII and XXIV in the series) at 2s 6d each, then as a single book (volume XII in the series) for 7s and 6d. In the first three years about 7,000 copies were sold.
7.
LyellCharles, The Principles of Geology: Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface, by Reference to Causes now in Operation (1830–33) three volumes.
8.
Letter from Darwin to Leonard Horner, 29 Aug 1844. All references to Darwin's correspondence is taken from the Darwin Correspondence Project available either on published volumes as The Correspondence of Charles Darwin; currently volumes 1 to 15 (1985–2005) or online at http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/
9.
The first edition of Essay on the Principle of Population (1798) was published anonymously by J. Johnson (London). The subsequent editions (1803, 1806, 1807, 1817, and 1826) were extensively enlarged and revised. John Murray published the three volume 1817 edition and two volume 1826 edition.
10.
DarwinCharles Robert, The autobiography of Charles Darwin 1809–1882. With the original omissions restored. Edited and with appendix and notes by his grand-daughter Nora Barlow (1958) p. 120.
11.
DarwinAutobiography (1958) p. 120.
12.
BrowneJanet, Charles Darwin, The Power of Place, volume II of a Biography (2003) p. 11.
13.
DarwinAutobiography (1958) p. 115.
14.
Letter from Darwin to William Darwin Fox, 24 Mar 1859.
15.
Browne (2003) p. 68.
16.
Darwin had ten children; William Erasmus (1839–1914), Anne Elizabeth (1841–1851), Mary Eleanor (1842), Henrietta Emma “Etty” (1843–1929), George Howard (1845–1912), Elizabeth Darwin (1847–1926), Francis (1848–1925), Leonard (1850–1943), Horace (1851–1928) and Charles Waring (1856–1858).
17.
Letter from Darwin to Hooker, 10 Apr 1858.
18.
Murray published Hooker's Himalayan journals: notes of a naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, the Khasia mountains (1854) and Leonard Huxley's Life and letters of Joseph Dalton Hooker (1918).
19.
Letter from Darwin to Hooker, 11 Jan 1844.
20.
Living Cirripedia (1851), preface, p.v.
21.
The full titles of these works are A Monograph of the Fossil Lepadidae, or, Pedunculated Cirripedes of Great Britain, published by the Palaeontographical Society (1851) and A monograph on the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species: the Lepadidae, or, Pedunculated cirripedes, published by the Ray Society (1851) and A monograph on the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species: the Balanidae (or sessile cirripedes); the Verrucidae, etc. (1854), and the shorter A Monograph on the Fossil Balanidae and Verrucidae of Great Britain (1854).
22.
Letter from Darwin to Lyell, 18 Jun 1858.
23.
Letter from Darwin to Lyell, 25 Jun 1858.
24.
Letter from Darwin to Lyell, 26 Jun 1858.
25.
DarwinAutobiography (1958) p. 122.
26.
Presidential address 24 May 1859, Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London (1859).
27.
Letter from Darwin to Hooker, 12 Oct 1858.
28.
DarwinAutobiography (1958) p. 122.
29.
HuxleyLeonard (ed.) Life and letters of Joseph Dalton Hooker (1918), pp. 495–6.
30.
Letter from Darwin to Hooker, 12 Apr 1859.
31.
HuxleyLeonard (ed.) Life and letters of Joseph Dalton Hooker (1918), pp. 495–6.
32.
Letter from Darwin to Lyell, 28 Mar 1859.
33.
Letter from Murray to Martineau, 29 Feb 1848 (NLS reference Ms. 40787).
34.
Letter from Darwin to Murray, 31 Mar 1859 (NLS reference Ms. 42153 ff. 12–13).
35.
Letter from Murray to Darwin, 1 April 1859 (NLS reference Ms. 41913 p. 32).
36.
Letter from Darwin to Hooker, 2 Apr 1859.
37.
Letter from Darwin to Hooker, 2 Apr 1859.
38.
Letter from Darwin to Murray, 2 Apr 1859 (NLS reference Ms. 42153 ff. 18–19).
39.
Letter from Darwin to Murray, 5 Apr 1859 (NLS reference Ms. 42152 ff. 35–35A).
40.
Quoted in various including; Paston, George, At John Murray's, 1843–1892 (1932) p. 170 and Huxley (1918) p. 301.
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‘Master George Pollock’ by E. S. P. Hayes in Cornhill Magazine, August 1916, quoted in Paston (1932) p. 170.
42.
Letter from Elwin to Murray, 3 May 1859 (NLS reference Ms. 42197).
43.
Some XVIII century men of letters by Whitwell Elwin, edited by Warwick Elwin (1902) volume one p. 352.
44.
Letter from Darwin to Murray, 2 Sep 1859 (NLS reference Ms. 42152 ff. 45–46).
45.
Letter from Darwin to Murray, 14 May 1859 (NLS reference Ms. 42152 ff. 40–40A).
46.
Letter from Darwin to Murray, 5 Apr 1859 (NLS reference Ms. 42152 ff. 35–35A).
47.
Letter from Darwin to Murray, 14 May 1859 (NLS reference Ms. 42152 ff. 40–40A).
48.
DarwinAutobiography (1958) p. 124.
49.
Letter from Darwin to Murray, 14 May 1859 (NLS reference Ms. 42152 ff. 40–40A).
50.
Letter from Darwin to Murray, 14 Jun 1859 (NLS reference Ms. 42152 ff. 43–44).
51.
Letter from Darwin to Murray, 3 Nov 1859 (NLS reference Ms. 42152 f. 49)
52.
Browne (2003) p. 81.
53.
Letter from Darwin to W D Fox, 23 Sep 1859.
54.
Letter from Darwin to Hooker, 15 Oct 1859.
55.
Letter from Darwin to Lyell, 30 Sep 1859.
56.
Letter from Darwin to Murray, 24 Nov 1859 (NLS reference Ms. 42152 ff. 70–71).
57.
Letter from Darwin to Murray, 2 Dec 1859 (NLS reference Ms. 42152 ff. 51–53).
58.
For details of those issued with presentation copies see Correspondence of Charles Darwin, volume 7, appendix VIII, pp. 532–536.
59.
Letter from Hershel to Lyell, 10 Dec 1859.
60.
Letter from Darwin to Huxley, 2 Jun 1859.
61.
Letter from Darwin to Murray, 2 Dec 1859 (NLS reference Ms. 42152 ff. 51–53).
62.
Quarterly Review, volume 108 (1860), pp. 225–264.
63.
Quarterly Review, volume 108 (1860) p. 260.
64.
Quarterly Review, volume 108 (1860) p. 260.
65.
Letter from Darwin to Murray, 3 Aug 1860 (NLS reference Ms. 42152 ff. 74–75).
66.
Letter from Hooker to Murray, quoted in Paston (1932) p. 176.
67.
Huxley (1918) p. 301.
68.
Letter from Darwin to Murray, 9 Apr 1860 (NLS reference Ms. 42152 ff. 90–91).
69.
DarwinAutobiography (1958) p. 125.
70.
The Reign of Law (1866) was published in five editions by Alexander Strahan of London and Burdens of Belief and other poems (1894) published by Murray.
71.
Somerville's autobiography was posthumously published as Personal Recollections, from Early Life to Old Age (1873).
72.
Letter from Somerville to Murray, Jan 1869 (NLS reference Ms. 41131).
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The naturalist on the River Amazons. A record of adventures, habits of animals, sketches of Brazilian and Indian life, and aspects of nature under the equator, during eleven years of travel. With a memoir of the author (1863).
74.
Letter from Darwin to H W Bates, 25 Sep 1861.
75.
Letter from Darwin to Murray, 28 Jan 1862 (NLS reference Ms. 42153 ff. 28–29).
76.
For the variations between editions see The origin of species by Charles R. Darwin; A variorum text edited by Morse Peckham (1959).
77.
Origin, second edition, p. 490 “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
78.
Origin, second edition, p. 490 “There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed by the Creator into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
79.
Origin editions and sales were; 1859 1st edition of 1,250, 1860 2nd edition of 3,000, 1861 3rd edition of 2,000, 1866 4th edition of 1,500, 1869 5th edition of 2,000, 1872 6th edition of 3,000; with subsequent reprints in 1873 of 2,000, 1875 of 1,500, 1876 of 1,250, 1878 of 2,000, 1880 of 2,000 = total 21,500 copies.
80.
See comparative table of cumulative total of copies of Origin and Vestiges published in Secord, James A., Victorian Sensation: the extraordinary publication, reception, and secret authorship of Vestiges of the natural history of creation (2003) p. 526.
81.
The compilation of exact sales numbers for Principles is complicated by the format of the different editions and varied volumes (between one and four). For a summary of his publications see Stuart A. Baldwin's ‘Charles Lyell and the extraordinary publishing history of his works’ in Geology Today, May-June, 1998, pp. 113–115.
82.
NLS reference Ms. 42730 p. 422.
83.
McClayDavid‘Samuel Smiles And Self-Help, a Nineteenth-Century Bestseller’ in The Journal of the Edinburgh Bibliographic Society Number three (2008), pp. 63–69.
84.
DarwinCharlesThe Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871).
85.
Origin (1859) p. 488.
86.
Murray (1909), pp. 539–540.
87.
The formation of vegetable mould, through the action of worms, with observations on their habits (1881).
88.
The book sold 6,000 copies within a year and 13,000 before the end of the century.
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DarwinCharles, On the various contrivances by which British and foreign orchids are fertilised by insects (1862) and reissued (1877).
90.
Letter from Darwin to Hooker, 28 Sep 1861.
91.
Letter from Darwin to Murray, 9 Feb 1862 (NLS reference Ms. 42152 ff. 114–115).
92.
FreemanR BCharles Darwin: A companion (1978) p. 86.
93.
Letter from Darwin to Bates, 31 Jan 1862.
94.
‘Darwin and his publisher’ in Science Progress in the Twentieth Century a Quarterly Journal of Scientific Work and Thought, Volume III, No. 12 April 1909, pp. 537–538.
