Hartford, Nov. 2.
slc
My Dear Conway: Belford Bros., Canadian thieves, are
flooding America with a cheap pirated edition of Tom Sawyer.1 I have just telegraphed Chatto to assign Canadian copyright to me, but I suppose it is too late to do any good.2 We cannot issue for 6 weeks yet, & by that time Belford will have sold 100,000 over the frontier &
killed my book dead. This piracy will cost me $10,000, & I will spend as
much more to choke off those pirates, if the thing can be done. Ask Chatto if he gave
bBelford Bros permsission to publish.3
Ever Yours
S. L. C.
Explanatory Notes
On or shortly before 29 July 1876, Belford Brothers of Toronto had issued a pirated edition of the English edition of Tom Sawyer, which had been published on 9 June. The Belfords first priced their edition at $2.25 and then offered a $1.00 hardback and a $.75 paperback (Roper 1966, 31, 47; TS 1980, 20–21).
The Imperial copyright on Tom Sawyer had been registered to Conway, who resided in London, to ensure its validity. In response to this request, he arranged for the transfer of the copyright to Clemens. He assumed that it would be valid not only in Britain but in Canada as well. Clemens’s telegram to Chatto and Windus has not been found, but Conway responded for Andrew Chatto (CU-MARK):
For the illustrated English editions of Tom Sawyer, see 4 July 1876 to Conway, n. 2. Conway’s reference to Benjamin F. Butler, the controversial former Union general and Republican congressman, has not been explained.
In his reply (CU-MARK), Conway alluded first to Clemens’s 28 October letter to Ellen Conway:
Conway’s other two enclosures do not survive. Chatto felt that by making “entries at Stationers Hall for Mark Twain” (between 1554 and 1924 British copyright was secured by registration with the Stationers’ Company in London), rather than for Chatto and Windus, he had potentially weakened his ability to litigate for copyright infringement. Conway soon reported the reply to Chatto’s 15 November telegram (CU-MARK):
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Previous publication:
MTLP, 105–6.
Provenance:
The Conway Papers were acquired by NNC sometime after Conway’s death in 1907.