Cross and Bevan, Text-book of paper 1.00 McCarty, Ireland's cause...... ....35 c.; 20 222 25 25 25 555 2.00 1.00 20 20 20 20 20 THOMAS WHITTAKER, N. Y. Roberts, A little step-daughter.. Vinton, Four lectures, (corr. price.).. LIST OF ENGLISH BOOKS. Published from Dec. 15 to 31, 1887. Selected from the [London]" Publishers' Circular." Ashton, J. The Fleet: its river, prison, and marriages. Illustrated by pictures from original drawings and engravings. 8°. 402 P., 21S..... ....Unwin. Bhagavad Gita; or, the Lord's lay. With commentary and notes as well as references to the Christian scriptures. Translated from the Sanskrit, for the benefit of those in search of spiritual light, by Mohini M. Chatterji. 8°. 290 p., 10s. 6d.. Trubner. Bingham, Hon. D. The Bastile. Illustrated. 2 v. 8°. 1004 P., 32S... ....Chapman. A history of the Bastile, compiled from papers not previously published. Burton, Richard F. His early private and public life. With an account of his travels and explorations by Francis Hitchman. 2 v. 8°. 870 p., 36s..........Low. Carlyle, T. Sartor resartus. Post 8°. 220 P., IS. Chapman. Carlisle, T. The French revolution: a history. 3 v. Chapman. 12. Is. ea...... Gilbert and Sullivan birthday-book; being quotations for every day in the year, selected from those plays by W. S. Gilbert which have been set to music by Sir Arthur Sullivan. Compiled by Alexander Watson. Square 16o. 4s. 6d....... .Pickering. Howard, A. Copyright: a manual for authors and publishers. 12°. 64 p., sewed, is. ....Griffith. Layard, Sir H. Early adventures in Persia, Susiana, and Babylonia, including a residence among the Bakhtiyari and other wild tribes before the discovery of Nineveh. With maps and illustrations. 2 v. post 8°. 990 p., 24S.. Murray. Oliphant, Mrs. The makers of Venice: doges, conquerors, painters, and men of letters. With illustrations by R. R. Holmes. 8°. 388 p., 21s.... Macmillan. Tien, A. Neo-Hellenic manual: comprising practical rules for learning the language, vocabulary, dialogue, letters, idioms, etc., in English and Neo-Hellenic. 120. 250 P., 5S. ......W. H. Allen. The Publishers' Weekly. FOUNDED BY F. LEYPOLDT. JANUARY 21, 1888. The trade are invited to send "Communications" to the editor on any topic of interest to the trade, and as to which an interchange of opinion is desirable. Also, matter for "Notes and Queries" thankfully received. In case of business changes, notification or card should be immediately sent to this office for entry under “Business Notes." New catalogues issued will also be mentioned when forwarded. Publishers are requested to furnish title-page proofs and advance information of books forthcoming, both for entry in the lists and for descriptive mention. An early copy of each book published should be forwarded, to insure correctness in the final entry. The editor does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed in contributed articles or communications. All matter, whether for the reading matter columns or our advertising pages, should reach this office not later than Wednesday noon, to insure insertion in the same Every man is a debtor to his profession, from the which, as men do of course seek to receive countenance and profit, so ought they of auty to endeavor themselves by way of amends to be a help thereunto."-LORD BACON. INTERNATIONAL COPYRIGHT: There is a certain class of men who hold that, thought being free and words the property of all people, there should be no such thing as copyright, domestic or foreign. These men are at least consistent; they are the Anarchists of the literary world. But the slightest examination of their position exposes its fallacy. Copyright, unlike patents, is not a bar to the use of existing thought in new combinations by any new author. The prejudice against patent law, therefore, so far as it extends, should not affect copyright law. Further, "the style is the man,” and no author will write another author's book. No case is known in copyright law, though there are many in patent law, of two men presenting the same crea tion at the same or even at different times. There is no property more individual in its origin than that which a man writes "out of his own head." Sometimes it has cost him a lifetime of study and experience, and if anywhere the laborer is worthy of his hire, it is certainly in the case of an author who blesses the world with a new book which the world wants. If the world does not want it, the copyright is of "no account," the author does not earn any pay, and no one is harmed. There is a kindred objection that an author has entire right to property which he has created so PROS long as he keeps that property to himself. On this theory an author has a right to a book till it becomes a book, and no longer; the moment he begins to sell it and to get money for it and to earn his own living by it, that moment he loses all rights. This is a denial of the very basis of authorship except as a charity craft. It is like saying that a man can own his umbrella till it rains, but then he must give it up to whoever wants it. WHILE other civilized nations have been progressing year by year in that recognition of the rights of all men to their property which should include above all others the right of a man to property which he creates by the work of his own hands or brain, the United States has been the one country to stand aloof, to lag in the van of progress instead of marching in its true place at the head. The movement for international copyright has resulted finally in the organization of the International Copyright Union, in which England, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, and other nations have agreed to give each in its own country the protection to foreign authors which it gives to native authors. Previous to this event most of the European nations had individual treaties with each other by which practically the same result was obtained. But now, following the march of events in the very line of progress of our own individual States when the American Union was formed, these several great nations, which before had been members of the International Postal Union, have joined themselves into this International Copyright Union. It is a splendid step in that great march of humanity toward the time when wars shall give place to peace and the brotherhood of nations shall be recognized of all men. Alas, that our own country has so far refused to blot out what is no less than a national disgrace! But it is further said that while it is well enough to grant the privileges of copyright to home authors, there is no call to extend it to citizens of other nations. This is a relic of the time when the men of each nation were considered enemies of the men of each other nation, were ready in savage days to eat each other up. There has been no more striking proof of the advance of civilization than the willingness of each civilized nation to do justice to citizens of other nations; indeed it is that in which civilization itself largely consists. But, aside from this, the remuneration of the average author is not so great in one country as to give him anything like the pay the same amount of work will give other workers, and he needs, in fact, the market of the whole world, so far as it will buy his book, to pay him fairly. ** But there is another and nationally selfish side to international copyright. We have heard a great deal about competition with American workmen from the "pauper labor" of Europe, yet the infant industry " of American author- ship has been subjected to competition, not with low wages, but with stolen goods. The American author has reason to make the complaint of the man who did not understand why he could be undersold in selling brooms until he found that the rival "manufacturer" stole his brooms readymade. The American writer of fiction, for instance, who ought to gain at least two or three thousand dollars for a novel which cost him a full year's work, finds himself cheated out of his own home market by the fact that numbers of novels by English writers are sold here without any payment whatever to the author, so that only an American author who has made his way to fame, chiefly through magazine stories, has much chance of getting any decent returns for his first books. American publishers have come to recognize this so practically that many of them decline to read manuscripts of American novels. This is where the absence of international copyright is a direct blow at American authorship and the rights of American citizens. Nor do the American publishers gain. It is notorious that almost no profit is made on the cheap reprints. It is generally understood that such cheap series as the Franklin Square Library have not been in themselves remunerative; several publishers who have made this "cheap literature" their chief business have failed more than once; and the proprietors of the Seaside Library and of the several parallel or cheap 12mo series who seem to have been successful in this line are the proprietors also of successful story-papers, whose profits are so considerable as to make losses on the cheap reprints of no account. The publishers of nearly all the "cheap series" now join, in fact, in the movement for a copyright law which shall place their publications on a sounder business basis. The one publisher who has perhaps made some profit in this line went in at the floodtide, absorbed several other enterprises of the sort which failed and dropped into his hands, and has had the cream of all the English literature of the past and present to give him opportunity. The standard works of the past have now all been reprinted in this way, and the present consequence of the cheap reprints system, since these books to take advantage of the low postal rates must be issued at regular weekly or other intervals, has been to flood American readers with a deluge of current English trash. This stuff, poorly printed, not worth reprinting and not worth reading, has been for the past year the chief reliance of the reprinter. To the great body of the American publishing trade, international copyright would be a great boon. At the beginning of the international copyright movement some opposition was experienced from typographical unions and others interested in the manufacturing trades which help to make the printed book. But they have begun to see the unwisdom of their position. To the type-setter the cheap reprints, reset from printed matter in great part by girls, has been the work which paid the least, and if it could be succeeded by a new development of real American literature, so that Americans would read American and not English books, it should be the American printer who would benefit most. So also with other trades, like the paper-maker, the pressman, and the binder; the reprint stuff is the poorest class of work in the mechanical as well as the literary sense, and after any intelligent discussion in a trades union, there ought to be but one result as to the desirability of international copyright to wage-workers. But the American reading public-how about their cheap books? In the first place, as has been indicated above, "the past is secure ;" they can have for nothing, or next to nothing, works of all the great authors who have heretofore lived, and what they would lose now in the cheap reprints would chiefly be the trashy current stuff of the day. Mr. Brander Matthews in an article in the Century, reprinted elsewhere, points out that the great body of works reprinted are in the department of fiction, and yet it is undeniably true that every department of American authorship would take a leap forward in development, if this unpaid-for competition should be put on a normal basis. Mr. Lowell has nobly said that there is one thing better than a cheap book, and that is a book honestly come by, and we believe that if the question could be put directly to the constituency of any member of Congress, there would be a large vote in favor of an honest book. But it is a cardinal mistake to suppose that books generally would be rendered dear by the application of international copyright. The result would be that the 10 cent or 25 cent reprints of current English novels would be no longer found in the market; they would be advanced to a reasonable figure, such as would allow a fair payment to the English author. But the American books would be rather cheapened, for the American author would sell many more copies of each edition of his books, the first large cost of making the book would be distributed so much more widely, each book in the edition could be printed at a much lower cost and published at a much lower price, while the total returns of the author would be much greater. "Large sales at small profits" has been the motto of success in American trade, and both the American reader on the one side and the American author and publisher on the other would profit by the application of this rule. ** The subject of international copyright has been stamps required, in their hundreds of kinds. This system does away altogether with the ordinary basis of property, which permits the pur every way it opposes itself to the desires of authors, the practice of publishers, and the ordinary methods of law. It is stoutly opposed by both the "authors' " and the publishers' Leagues, and in view of this fact, it is understood that its projector has expressed his willingness to stand aside, and his measure will not be pressed. ** agitated in America ever since 1837, when Henry Clay made the first report to Congress in favor of an international copyright system, yet in all these years the question has never come to a di-chaser to deal with the agent of his choice, and in rect vote in Congress. This has been partly due to the difference of opinion as to what bill ought to be passed among those who have chiefly urged the reform. Authors naturally and rightly desire to see a bill which should recognize simply and solely the author's own right to his creation throughout the civilized world-a law which will protect the owner of a book as it would protect the owner of anything else. On the other hand, the manufacturing interests have pressed for a bill which should confine international copyright to books made in this country, and there has been also discussion and dissension as to the minor points of the law. Happily the era of disagreement is passed; authors, publishers, and all interested have come together in behalf of a measure which, however incomplete in the eyes of the authors, will at least redeem this country from the disgrace of its present isolation and give American authors some chance. Such a bill Congress is now asked to pass. An agreement has been reached, however, between the committees of the two Leagues, which will be presented to the constituencies, and will doubtless be accepted by the great body of all the interests involved. The original Chace bill was chiefly objectionable for including a clause absolutely prohibiting the importation of any foreign editions of copyright books—a provision unsatisfactory to authors and scholars, which the authors' League could not accept, and which the reading public, as represented by the general press, would undoubtedly oppose. The modification, which is understood to be acceptable to Senator Chace personally, provides that copyright shall be granted on foreign books provided copies of the best edition printed in this country shall be deposited at Washington simul Under these circumstances it is sincerely hoped that Congress will at last heed the cry of authors, publishers, bookmakers, and readers, and do what it can, not so much to promote American literature as to prevent its decadence. Every post-taneously with publication abroad. This concesponement of the question now, puts things in a worse and worse condition as regards our own interests and in the eyes of other nations. "Let justice be done" and let a national disgrace be blotted out forever. ** * The royalty-stamp plan advocated by Mr. R. Pearsall-Smith, which has been exploited by "symposiums" in the Nineteenth Century and in the North American Review, is one which in the eyes of both authors and publishers has most of the disadvantages of the present system and none of the advantages of international copyright. A few authors in this country and England have given their adhesion to this plan, thinking that it might have more chance of success than a sounder measure; but the great body of authors, publishers, and intelligent readers see in this system but a means of postponing a true system of international copyright founded on business principles. The plan involves the pasting on each book of a stamp which the English author is bound to sell to any American publisher, based on such price for the book as the American publisher may make. Under it the Government fixes the royalty to be paid the author (namely, 10% on such price as the publisher may choose to make), a piece of sumptuary legislation never undertaken by any government; and to provide through the Librarian of Congress the sion of a manufacturing clause to the manufacturing interests and to the protectionist element, though a considerable one on the part of the authors, does not militate against a fair recognition of the right of the author, and importation remains on the same ground on which it rests in domestic copyright in our own and other countries, the consent of the copyright-holder. There is no commercial danger from this, while the scholar or public institution can doubtless get permission to import a foreign edition for special reasons. Simultaneous publication accomplishes two purposes: it gives the American reader his American edition promptly, or, contrariwise, opens a book at once to American competition. Certain English publishers may oppose this feature-but we are scarcely legislating for them, while the English authors will recognize in this provision that which exists in their own domestic law. The first book of a new author will be chiefly at disadvantage, but this difficulty can scarcely be avoided. This COPYRIGHT NUMBER of the PUBLISHERS' WEEKLY aims to present a compendium of the status of the international copyright movement which will enable those interested in the movement to post themselves thoroughly in regard to it. Our existing domestic law and the agreement of the International Copyright Union give the present legal status by copyright law, domestic and international; the text of the Chace bill, as modified by the Leagues, gives the proposed bridge from domestic to international copyright here, and with it is coupled the text of the Hawley bill, now abandoned, and the interesting Henry Clay report. A history of the origin and progress of the Copyright League, and full accounts of the publishers' organization in New York and the local one in Boston will be found of value. Mr. Solberg's bibliography of recent copyright literature is a useful guide, and two of the most important utterances to which it points, by Mark Twain and by Brander Matthews, are given in full. But perhaps the most interesting feature of the issue is the list of books by American writers (chiefly those living) contributed by the respective publishers. It is not complete, as some of the smaller lists were not furnished us, though fairly approximate, but the index shows significance in two directions-the unexpected number of American authors, and the small production of most of them. Given international copyright, and many good writers who can't now "make it pay" would give their lives to ennobling American literature. The many difficulties under which this number has been prepared, at short notice, compel us to apologize in advance for shortcomings which will doubtless be discovered in the lists and indexes, and we regret also that it was not possible to induce all publishers to join in its preparation. 64 A LITTLE FABLE IN RE COPYRIGHT. Dedicated to Publishers on both sides of the Atlantic. ONCE upon a time two rival coachmen met upon the road, each with a passenger in his coach. After a few unpleasant words, Smith called Jones a thief. Whereupon Jones declared that if he were called that again he would whip Smith's customer. To this Jones replied, If you do, I'll whip yours," and called him a thief again. Thereupon Jones laid on his whip and made Smith's customer howl, and Smith retaliated by lashing Jones' fare. After thrashing each other's passengers to their heart's content they drove off in opposite directions. After a while Smith's passenger recovered, and asked, "Why did you let him beat me so?" To which Smith replied, "Ah! but did you see how I 'broke up' his customer?" RECENT COPYRIGHT LITERATURE. BENOIDT (Maurice) and DESCAMPS (Louis). Commentaire législatif de la loi du 22 mars 1886 sur le droit d'auteur. 4 p. 1, 5-429pp., 1 l. 8°. Bruxelles. E. Ramlot, 1886. Contains the text of the recent law of Belgium on literary property, and the discussions in the Belgium Legislature at the time of its enactment. BERNE conferences. Actes de la conférence internationale pour la protection des droits d'auteur, réunie à Berne du 8 au 19 septembre 1884. 87pp., 1 l. fol. Berne, K. J. Wyss, 1884. Actes de la 2me conférence, réunie à Berne du 7 au 18 septembre 1885. 81pp. fol. Berne, K. J. Wyss, 1885. Actes de la 3me conférence, réunie à Berne du 6 au 9 septembre 1886. 44pp. fol. Berne, K. J. Wyss, 1886. BowKER (R. R.) Copyright, its law and its literature. Being a summary of the principles and law of copyright, with special reference to books. With a bibliography of literary property by Thorvald Solberg. 4 p. l., 55pp., 10 l., 60pp. 4°. New York, Office of the "Publishers' Weekly," 1886. Contains also the text of the Copyright law of the United States, Sir James Stephens' digest of the Copyright law of Great Britain, and the memorial for international copyright with facsimile autographs of 150 American authors. CLUNET (Édouard). Étude sur la convention d'Union internationale pour la protection des œuvres littéraires et artistiques. 110pp. 12°. Paris, Marchal & Billard, 1887. DARRAS (Alcide). Du droit des auteurs & des artistes dans les rapports internationaux. 4 p. 1., 688pp. 8°. Paris, A. Rousseau, 1887. [Études théoriques et pratiques de droit international privé. Des droits intellectuels. I.] GRIEVANCES (The) between authors and publish⚫ers, being the report of the conferences of the Incorporated Society of Authors, held in March, 1887, with additional matter and summary. [By Walter Besant.] 4 p. 1., 7-188pp. 12°. London, Field & Tuer, 1887. Papers and remarks, by Lord Lytton, W. Besant, Sir F. Pollock, E. Gosse, A. W. Tuer, G. M. Smith, and G. H. Putnam. KASTEELE (Johannes van de). Het auteursrecht in Nederland. viii., 208pp. 8°. Leiden, P. Somerwil, 1885. LAVOLLEE (René). La propriété littéraire et la convention de Berne. 28pp. 8°. Paris, Librairie Guillaumin & cie., 1887. MARSTON (Edward). Copyright, national and international, with some remarks on the position of authors and publishers. By a Publisher. [Anon.] vii., 8opp. 8°. London, S. Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1887. [N. Y., Office of the "Publishers' Weekly."] ORELLI (Aloys von). Der international schutz des urheberrechtes. 6opp. 8°. Hamburg, J. F. Richter, 1887. PAPPAFAVA (Vladimir). A propos du caractére juridique et des vicissitudes historiques du droit de propriété sur les œuvres de littérature et d'art. 133pp., 1 1. 8°. Grenoble, Baratier & Dardelet, 1886. PUTNAM (G. H.) An analysis of Mr. R. Pearsall Smith's scheme for international copyright. Reprinted, with some additions, from the New York" Evening Post." 10pp. 8°. n. p., 1887. SMITH (R. Pearsall). International copyright. Protected copyright with free-trade competition. By an American. [Anon.] 30pp. 8°. London, Ballantyne, Hanson & Co., 1886. SOCIETÀ italiana degli autori. Le nuove convenzioni internazionali sulla proprieta letteraria Spagna, Germania, Svezia, Francia, con la legislazione interna dei diversi stati. 2 p. 1., 132pp. 8°. Milano, 1886. |