The book was published the first day of January with the still unpenetrated pseudonym on the title-page. It cost thirty one shillings and six pence. The advance subscriptions amounted to 730 copies, and the following note, written March 16, gives the history of its success:
"Blackwood writes to say I am 'a popular author as well as a great author.' They printed 2,090 of 'Adam Bede,' and have disposed of more than 1800, so that they are thinking of a second edition."
In May, Blackwood proposed to add, at the end of the year, £400 to the £800 originally given for the copyright. A fourth edition of 5000 volumes was issued in 1859, all of which were sold in a fortnight; a seventh was printed the same year, and in October Blackwood felt justified in proposing to pay £800 more at the beginning of the new year. The sale amounted to 16,000 volumes in one year.
Octavo.
Collation: Three volumes.
CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN
(1809-1882)
96. On | The Origin Of Species | [Four lines] By Charles Darwin, M.A., [Three lines] London: | John Murray, Albemarle Street. | 1859. | The right of Translation is reserved.
The simplicity and honesty of Darwin's character are nowhere more clearly seen than in his correspondence over the production of this book, which, from its unorthodoxy, he feared might expose others as well as himself to censure. For example, he says in a letter of March 28, 1859, to Sir Charles Lyell, the famous geologist, who made the arrangements for the publication of the work: