As Darwin wrote, he sent chapters to his daughter Henrietta for editing to ensure that damaging inferences could not be drawn, and also took advice from his wife Emma. The zoological illustrator T. W. Wood, (who had also illustrated Wallace's The Malay Archipelago (1869)), drew many of the figures in this book. The corrected proofs were sent off on 15 January 1871 to the publisher John Murray and published on 24 February 1871 as two 450-page volumes, which Darwin insisted was one complete, coherent work, and were priced at £14 shillings.[1]
Within three weeks of publication a reprint had been ordered, and 4,500 copies were in print by the end of March 1871, netting Darwin almost £1,500.[2] Darwin's name created demand for the book, but the ideas were old news. "Everybody is talking about it without being shocked," which he found "proof of the increasing liberality of England".[note 1]
Editions and reprints
Darwin and some of his children edited many of the large number of revised editions, some extensively. In late 1873, Darwin tackled a new edition of the Descent of Man. Initially, he offered Wallace the work of assisting him, but, when Emma found out, she had the task given to their son George, so Darwin had to write apologetically to Wallace. Huxley assisted with an update on ape-brain inheritance, which Huxley thought "pounds the enemy into a jelly... though none but anatomists" would know it. The manuscript was completed in April 1874 and published on 13 November that year. This has been the edition most commonly reprinted after Darwin's death and to the present day.
