LITERATURE AND LITERARY PROGRESS IN 1871. 



455 



ciety. With an Explanatory Paper by C. J. Ellicott, 

 D. D., Lord Bishop' of Gloucester and Bristol. 



The Earth : A Descriptive History of the Phe- 

 nomena of the Life, of the Globe. By Elis6e Eeclus. 

 Translated by B. B. Woodward, M. A., and edited 

 by Henry Woodward. Illustrated. 



Misread Passages of Scripture. By J. Baldwin 

 Brown. 



Life of Sir Walter Scott ; with Eemarks upon his 

 Writings. By Francis Turner Palgrave. With an 

 Essay on Scott, by David Masson, M. A., etc. 



The Critical and Explanatory Pocket Bible. The 

 Holy Bible according to the authorized version, with 

 a Critical and Explanatory Commentary. By the 

 Eev. Eobert Jamieson. D. D., Eev. A. E. Fausset, 

 A. M., Eev. B. M. Smith, and Eev. David Brown. 

 Four volumes. 



The Portable Commentary. Bv the same. [The 

 commentary without the text.] TVo volumes. 



At Last : A Christmas in, the West Indies. By 

 Charles Kingsley. 



The Management of Infancy, Physiological and 

 Moral. By Andrew Combe. Bevised and edited by 

 Sir James Clark, Bart. 



Eeminiscences of Fifty Years. By Mark Boyd. 



The Novels and Novelists of the Eighteenth Cen- 

 tury, in Illustration of the Manners and Morals of 

 the Age. By William Forsyth. 



A Smaller Scripture History. By Wm. Smith, LL.D. 



Ad Clerum: Advice to a Young Preacher. By 

 Joseph Parker, D. D. 



The Metaphors of St. Paul, and the Companions 

 of St. Paul. By J. S. Howson, D. D. With an In- 

 troduction by H. B. Hackett, D. D. 



THE COPYRIGHT QUESTION. The apathy on 

 the subject of international copyright has been 

 broken, and the subject has been more actively 

 under discussion, with more hope of action 

 upon it than at any previous period. The 

 appearance of the latest phase of the question 

 was due to one of the periodical growling-fits 

 of the London newspapers on American " pi- 

 racy " of English books. Americans in Eng- 

 land were not slow to repel the charge, and 

 make those counter-charges to which British 

 publishers are exposed by their freedom in 

 appropriating American books. These de- 

 fences were supported by English testimony. 

 Mr. "William H. Appleton, of New York, hap- 

 pening to arrive in London, from the Conti- 

 nent, while the controversy was in progress, 

 addressed a letter to the Times, which, as it 

 materially changed the form of the issue before 

 the public, is properly a part of the record : 



SIB : In passing through London, on my way home 

 from the Continent, I find the English press warmly 

 engaged in discussing the American copyright ques- 

 tion, and, as the publishing-firm in New York, of 

 which I am senior, has been made the object of spe- 

 cial reprobation by your correspondents, I ask space 

 for a few words of rejoinder, and for some sugges- 

 tions upon the general subject, which I think called 

 for at the present time. 



In your editorial strictures upon this question of 

 the lith of October you remark: " We do not sup- 

 pose any thing which could be said will alter the 

 settled determination of the Americans," etc. There 

 is no settled determination in the United States to 

 withhold justice from English authors in respect of 

 property in their works. As an American publisher 

 of large experience, I am in favor of an international 

 copyright law, and I believe that this conviction is 

 shared by a large number, if not a majority, of my 

 fellow-citizens. 



That this feeling has found but partial expression 



hitherto, and that no overtures have come from us, 

 is due, more than you probably suspect, to the man- 

 ner in which the English press has chosen to deal 

 with the subject. The most effective weapon of the 

 enemies of an international copyright law in the Uni- 

 ted States is a batch of English newspapers after one 

 of your periodical explosions upon the subject. I am 

 happy^, however, to note that there are signs of amend- 

 ment in this particular. 



It is a standing charge, and lately reechoed in all 

 directions, that the present treatment of English 

 authors by American publishers is disgraceful. Al- 

 though popular novelists, it is said, may get some- 

 thing decent for their advanced sheets, yet the hard- 

 working authors of valuable books get nothing, or 

 such " paltry pittances " as are not worth naming. 

 The number of those who make books and get very 

 small pay for it, or no pay whatever, and whom no 

 laws can ever help, is very large, of course, with us 

 as with y_ou, for only profitable books can pay. But, 

 under existing arrangements^ all books of value can 

 be made to pay very fairly in the United States, and, 

 if they do not, it is due in a great degree to the au- 

 thor's mismanagement. 



To the above charge, as it is broadly made and 

 generally believed here, I am able to give a flat con- 

 tradiction. The house I represent has been laboring 

 for years to establish direct relations with English 

 authors, so that they may get the entire profits of 

 authorship, on our side; and, in paying them, we have 

 put them upon substantially the same footing as our 

 own authors. We have not waited for an interna- 

 tional copyright law, but have practically anticipated 

 it and given your authors its benefits. There is a 

 standard of payment with us to our own authors, 

 which is generally accepted as fair and just, and (in 

 consideration of such advantages as they can give 

 us) all your authors with whom we could arrange we 

 pay upon this scale ; and, not on your novels merely, 

 but on grave works of philosophy, science, and his- 

 tory. Of the numerous books, for example, of Her- 

 bert Spencer, Dr. Tyndall, Prof. Huxley, Sir John 

 Lubbock, and Mr. Darwin, which we publish un- 



have paid thousands of pounds upon such solid works, 

 have urged this system upon your authors, and have 

 paid them thrice as much on the first year's sales as 

 they asked for advanced sheets, knowing that we 

 lost an immediate bargain, but believing that the 

 establishment of the principle would, in the end, be 

 best for all. We commenced this policy a dozen 

 years ago, have gone on extending it year by year, 

 and within these last few months a scheme has origi- 

 nated with us to carry out the plan more systemati- 

 cally for the benefit of a larger number of your au- 

 thors, and^on terms more advantageous to them than 

 any copyright can ever secure. 



But, it will be asked, "Do you not reprint foreign 

 books without the author's consent and without pay- 

 ment?". To which I answer, certainly and often. 

 But observe the circumstances. By the laws of all 

 countries, the author's right to his property in a 

 book is contingent upon his asking to have it pro- 

 tected ; is never recognized unless he complies with 

 certain requirements, and then only for a limited 

 time. By his neglect to " register,'' the book be- 

 comes common property, as it does, at any rate, after 

 a given date. If a book comes to us unprotected by 

 law, and nobody protests, we treat it just as your 

 publishers treat a book the copyright of which has 

 expired, and just as they treat American books, 

 whether any body protests or not. But, if the foreign 

 author applies to us at first, and we then publish his 

 book, we hold ourselves morally bound to pay him. 



It is taken for granted all round in this discussion, 

 that the Americans are opposed to an international 

 copyright law. On what evidence ? That England 

 has proffered it and we have rejected it perhaps 



