GHL to The Editor, Athenaeum, London, 13 May 1867
Title
GHL to The Editor, Athenaeum, London, 13 May 1867
Title
GHL to The Editor, Athenaeum, London, 13 May 1867
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
The Edi, Athenaeum
Date(s)
- 1867-05-13
Place
London
Letter Content
GHL to The Editor, Athenaeum, London, 13 May 1867
Text: Athenaeum, 18 May 1867, p. 663.
English Authors in America.
The Priory, May 13, 1867.
Permit me to add one more to the many illustrations you have already made public of the extraordinary pretensions of some American publishers.
Messrs. Hurd & Houghton, of New York, desired to reprint the new edition of my [History of Philosophy,] which is on the eve of appearing. 744 Glad as I should have been to see my work in the hands of a firm so honourably known in England, I felt that Messrs Appleton, of New York, had, in courtesy, a prior claim, on the ground of their having reprinted the previous edition in 1857. Accordingly I wrote to them, through their London agent, stating that I considered they had a claim to the first offer, and stating further, that the new edition was substantially a new book. (As this is an important element in the present case, allow me to add, that the edition of 1857 was in one volume 8vo., published at 16s., whereas the new edition is in two volumes 8vo., published at 30s.; and the work is so considerably altered and enlarged that a new title has been affixed to it, for the purpose of marking it off from its predecessors.) 745
Questions of courtesy, are, however, but ill understood by some people, and by Messrs. Appleton so ill understood that they did not even answer my letter. After waiting more than three months for an answer, I asked a friend to see their London agent on the subject, and thus I learned that Messrs. Appleton -- risum teneatis, amici? 746 -- "considered they had a right to publish all future editions of my work without payment," because ten years ago they had given the magnificent sum of 25l. to secure themselves against rivals for the second edition.
The extravagance of this pretension is seen by comparing it with that of an English publisher who, although his payment is twenty times that of the American publisher, never claims a right over any edition beyond the one purchased, much less over all future editions; and even when the entire copyright is purchased, although that gives him the right to issue reprint after reprint, there is no English publisher who does not pay, and often liberally pay, the author for all new matter, all extra labour which successive editions may involve. 747 If Messrs. Appleton chose to reprint the work which -- in the American sense -- they purchased in 1857, I, for one, should raise no objection to their doing so; but their claim to reprint another work of greater pretension, except as an act of literary piracy, is one which may be left to the judgment of all impartial persons. The absence of any law on the subject, except the unwritten law, which regulates the conduct of men of honour, gives Messrs. Appleton full power to act as they think proper; and what they think proper may be gathered from this one example.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES.
Text: Athenaeum, 18 May 1867, p. 663.
English Authors in America.
The Priory, May 13, 1867.
Permit me to add one more to the many illustrations you have already made public of the extraordinary pretensions of some American publishers.
Messrs. Hurd & Houghton, of New York, desired to reprint the new edition of my [History of Philosophy,] which is on the eve of appearing. 744 Glad as I should have been to see my work in the hands of a firm so honourably known in England, I felt that Messrs Appleton, of New York, had, in courtesy, a prior claim, on the ground of their having reprinted the previous edition in 1857. Accordingly I wrote to them, through their London agent, stating that I considered they had a claim to the first offer, and stating further, that the new edition was substantially a new book. (As this is an important element in the present case, allow me to add, that the edition of 1857 was in one volume 8vo., published at 16s., whereas the new edition is in two volumes 8vo., published at 30s.; and the work is so considerably altered and enlarged that a new title has been affixed to it, for the purpose of marking it off from its predecessors.) 745
Questions of courtesy, are, however, but ill understood by some people, and by Messrs. Appleton so ill understood that they did not even answer my letter. After waiting more than three months for an answer, I asked a friend to see their London agent on the subject, and thus I learned that Messrs. Appleton -- risum teneatis, amici? 746 -- "considered they had a right to publish all future editions of my work without payment," because ten years ago they had given the magnificent sum of 25l. to secure themselves against rivals for the second edition.
The extravagance of this pretension is seen by comparing it with that of an English publisher who, although his payment is twenty times that of the American publisher, never claims a right over any edition beyond the one purchased, much less over all future editions; and even when the entire copyright is purchased, although that gives him the right to issue reprint after reprint, there is no English publisher who does not pay, and often liberally pay, the author for all new matter, all extra labour which successive editions may involve. 747 If Messrs. Appleton chose to reprint the work which -- in the American sense -- they purchased in 1857, I, for one, should raise no objection to their doing so; but their claim to reprint another work of greater pretension, except as an act of literary piracy, is one which may be left to the judgment of all impartial persons. The absence of any law on the subject, except the unwritten law, which regulates the conduct of men of honour, gives Messrs. Appleton full power to act as they think proper; and what they think proper may be gathered from this one example.
GEORGE HENRY LEWES.
Signature
GEORGE HENRY LEWES.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to The Editor, Athenaeum, London, 13 May 1867, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/95028