Complete Works of Wilkie Collins (2184 page)

“ The copyright difficulty, as stated by Mr. Wilkie Collins,” he says,
 
“appears to be no difficulty at all. What am I to think of the multi- tudinous objections, from the American point of view, raised in lead- ing articles, pamphlets, speeches, and so forth.” My good friend, a
 
word in your ear. The American objections (I say it with due respect
 
for the objectors) are, one and all, American delusions! The main
 
object of this letter is, if possible, to blow some of those delusions
 
away. I promise not to be long about it, and to keep my temper, — -
 
though I have lost some thousands of pounds by American pirates.

Let us begin with the delusion that the American people have
 
something to do with the question of International Copyright.

An American citizen sees a reprinted English book in a shop- window, or has it pitched into his lap by a boy in a railway train, or
 
hears from a friend that it is well worth reading. He buys the book
 
and reads it; and, as I can gratefully testify from my own personal
 
experience, he feels, in the great majority of cases, a sincere respect
 
for literature and a hearty gratitude to the writer who has instructed
 
or interested him, — - which is one among the many honourable distinc- tions of the national character. When he has done all this, what in
 
Heaven’s name has author, publisher, orator, or leading-article-writer
 
any further right to expect from him? When I have paid for my
 
place at the theatre, and added my little tribute of applause in honour
 
of the play and actors, have I not done my duty as one of the audi- ence? Am I expected to insist on knowing whether the author’s
 
rights have been honestly recognised by the manager, and the player’s
 
salaries regularly paid without deduction once a week ? It is simply
 
ridiculous to mention the American people in connection with the
 
copyright question. The entire responsibility of honourably settling that question, in any country, rests with the legislature. In the
 
United States, the President and Congress are the guardians and
 
representatives of American honour. It is they, and not the people,
 
who are to blame for the stain which book-stealing has set on the
 
American name.

Let me introduce to you another delusion, which has amused us in
 
England.

We are gravely informed that the United States is the paradise of
 
cheap literature, and that international copyright would raise the
 
price of American books to the inordinately high level of the English
 
market. Our Circulating-Library system is cited as a proof of the
 
truth of this assertion. There can be no two opinions on the ab- surdity of that system; but, such as it is, let us at least have it
 
fairly understood. When a novel, for example, is published at the
 
preposterous price of a guinea and a half, nobody pays that price. At
 
a deduction of one third at least, an individual speculator buys the
 
book and lends it to the public. Give this man, as an annual sub- scription, the nominal price originally asked for the book (a guinea
 
and a half), and he will lend you at least three novels a week, for a
 
whole year. If this is not cheap reading, what is ? But you will say,
 
The public may want to buy some of the best of these novels. Very
 
well. Within a year from the date of its first issue, the book is re- published at five or six shillings (a dollar and a half), and is again
 
republished at two shillings (fifty cents). Setting this case of stolen
 
literary property out of the question, are these not current American
 
prices? But why should the purchaser be made to wait till the book
 
can be sold at a reasonable price ? I admit the absurdity of making
 
the purchaser of a book wait until the borrower has done with it.
 
But is that absurdity likely, under any conceivable circumstances, to
 
be copied in America? In England, the circulating library is one of
 
our old institutions which dies slowly. In America, it is no institu- tion at all. Is it within the limits of probability that one of your citi- zens should prefer lending a novel to a few hundred subscribers, when
 
he can sell it to purchasers by the thousand ? That citizen is not to
 
be found out of a madhouse. The one thing needful, so far as works
 
of fiction are concerned, is to show you that our popular price for
 
a novel is the American popular price. Look at the catalogue of
 
“Harper’s Library of American Fiction,” and you will find that the
 
prices range from two to three shillings (fifty to seventy-five cents).

Turning to literature in general, let us consult Messrs. Harper again. I am away from home while I write, and I have no means
 
of quoting from a more recent catalogue than the “Summer List for
 
1878.” However, the prices of less than two years ago in New York
 
cannot be obsolete prices yet. Here are a few specimens only:
 
“The Atlantic Islands. Illustrated. 8vo, cloth. $3.00?” (Twelve
 
shillings.) “Annual Record of Science and Industry for 1877. Large
 
12mo, cloth. $2.” (Eight shillings.) “The Student’s French
 
Grammar. 12mo, cloth. $1.40.” (Say five shillings and sixpence.)
 
“Art Education, Applied to Industry. Illustrated. 8vo, cloth gilt.
 
$4-00.” (Sixteen shillings.) “Harper’s Travellers’ Handbook, for
 
Europe and the East. $3.00 per volume.” (Twelve shillings.) I
 
am quite ready to believe that every one of these books is well worth
 
the price asked for it. But don’t tell me that American books are
 
always cheap books. And let it at least be admitted that English
 
publishers are not the only publishers who charge a remunerative
 
price for a valuable work, which has proved a costly work to produce,
 
and which is not always likely to command a large circulation. To
 
sum it up, literature which addresses all classes of the population is
 
as cheap in England as it is in America: literature which addresses
 
special classes only will, on that very account, always be published at
 
special prices (with or without international copyright) on both sides
 
of the Atlantic.
 
I must not try your patience too severely, Colonel. Let me leave
 
unnoticed some of the minor misunderstandings which obscure the
 
American view of the copyright case, and let me occupy the closing
 
lines of this letter with a really mischievous delusion, entertained by
 
one class of American citizens only. Prepare yourself for a surprise.
 
The American publisher has actually persuaded himself that his in- dividual trade-interests form an integral part of the question of inter- national copyright!

Just consider what this extraordinary delusion really amounts to.
 
“We don’t deny,” the American publishers say, “that you English
 
authors have a moral right of property in your books, which we are
 
quite ready to make a legal right on condition that we are to dictate
 
the use which you make in America of your own property. If we
 
confer on you international copyright, we see with horror a future
 
day when English publishers and English printers may start in busi- ness under our very noses ; and we will give you your due only with the one little drawback that we forbid you to employ your countrymen
 
to publish your books in our country, Our respect for justice is
 
matched only by our respect for our purses. Hurrah for honourable
 
dealings with the British author, so long as there is no fear of a
 
decrease in the balance at our banker’s! Down with the British
 
author and away with the national honour, if there is the slightest
 
danger of the almighty dollar finding its way into other pockets
 
than ours!”

Am I exaggerating? Let two of the chief American publishers
 
speak for themselves.

Hear Messrs. Harper & Brothers first. After reciting the general
 
conditions on which they propose to grant us copyright in the United
 
States, they proceed as follows : “ And provided further, that within
 
six months after registration of title the work shall have been manu- factured and published in this country,
and by a subject or citizen of
 
the country in which such registration has been made.
” Mr. W. H.
 
Appleton, writing to the London “Times” (in a curiously aggressive
 
tone), expresses himself even more plainly. “Our people,” he says — -
 
evidently meaning our printers and publishers “would rejoice to
 
open this vast opportunity to your intellectual labourers. . . . But they
 
hold themselves perfectly competent to manufacture the books that
 
shall embody your authors’ thoughts, in accordance with their own
 
needs, habits, and tastes ;
and in this they will not be interfered with.
”
 
(Extracted from Messrs. Harper & Brothers’ pamphlet. New York,
 
March 17, 1879.)

To argue the question with men who are of this way of thinking
 
would be merely to waste your time and mine, If we are ever to
 
have international copyright between the two countries, we must have
 
the same unreserved recognition of moral right, the same ungrudging
 
submission to the law of honour, which has produced the treaties ex- changed between the European Powers. In this respect, England
 
has set the example to the United States. And, let me add, England
 
has no fear of competition. I have put the question myself to emi- nent London publishers. They have no idea of intruding their trade- interests into a great question of national justice. They are ready to
 
welcome wholesome competition in an open market. If they set up
 
branch establishments in New York, the American publishers shall be
 
free to follow their example in London. What does Mr. Marston (of
 
the well-known London firm of Sampson Low, Marston, & Co.) say on
 
this subject, in his letter to the “Times” published May 12, 1879?

As a publisher, I trust I shall be absolved from the charge of advocating trade- interests, when I express my strong conviction that the only convention between
 
the two countries which can possibly bear the test of time must be one based upon
 
the original and inherent rights of property. Let registration in Washington and
 
London, within a month or two months of first publication in either country, con- vey respectively to English and American authors the same right in each other’s
 
country as in their own, and one’s sense of justice will be satisfied. . . . Such
 
restrictions as those proposed by American publishers exist in no other conven- tions ; they arise out of a most unfounded and unnecessary fear of competition by
 
English publishers.

There is the opinion of one representative member of the trade. I
 
could produce similar opinions from other members, but I must not
 
needlessly lengthen my letter. Hear, instead, an American citizen,
 
who agrees with Mr. Marston and with me. Let Mr. George Haven
 
Putnam speak, — - delivering an address on International Copyright,
 
in New York, on the 29th of January, 1879: —

I believe that in the course of time the general laws of trade would and ought
 
so to regulate the arrangements for supplying the American public with books that,
 
if there were no restriction as to the nationality of the publisher or as to the im- portation of printed volumes, the author would select the publishing agent, English
 
or American, who could serve him to best advantage, and that that agent would be
 
found to be the man who would prepare for the largest possible circle of American
 
readers the editions best suited to their wants. . . . If English publishers settling
 
here could excel our American houses in this understanding and in these facilities,
 
they ought to be at liberty to do so, and would be for the interest of the public
 
that no hindrances should be placed in their way.
 
VI.
 
I have now, I hope, satisfied you that I do not stand quite alone in
 
my way of thinking. If you make inquiries, you will find that other
 
American citizens, besides Mr. Putnam, can see the case plainly, as it
 
stands on its own merits.