Although John Nourse published Goldsmith's History of the Earth, and Animated Nature, Goldsmith originally signed a contract with William Griffin for the work in 1769. He paid Goldsmith 500 guineas on 26 September 1769 for the first five volumes; however, at this point he had sold half the copyright to Nourse, probably, as Prior speculates, to raise the cash for Goldsmith. Nourse would go on to acquire the entire copyright on 30 June 1772 but, before this happened, he insisted that Goldsmith transfer the copy legally to Griffin and acknowledge receipt of ￡840 in full payment. This agreement was then made over to Nourse. Nourse did not accept Goldsmith's suggestion in this letter that Griffin be permitted to buy back part of the property in the work. The St. James's Chronicle advertised An History of the Earth, and Animated Nature on 5 February 1774, ‘to be published next month’, but the work was not, in fact, published until 30 June, after Goldsmith's death.

The copy-text is the manuscript in the Taylor Library at Princeton University. It was first published by Prior in 1837. The letter is endorsed ‘Dr Goldsmith | received — Febry 20 1774’, which supplies our date.