Anthony Trollope - Autobiography of Anthony Trollope

Post Office that if this treatment were continued, I would write

home to say that any further action on my part was impossible. I

think I should have done so had it not occurred to me that I might

in this way serve his purpose rather than my own, or the purposes

of those who had sent me. The treaty, however, was at last made,--the

purport of which was, that everything possible should be done, at

a heavy expenditure on the part of England, to expedite the mails

from England to America, and that nothing should be done by America

to expedite the mails from thence to us. The expedition I believe

to be now equal both ways; but it could not be maintained as it is

without the payment of a heavy subsidy from Great Britain, whereas

no subsidy is paid by the States. [Footnote: This was a state of

things which may probably have appeared to American politicians

to be exactly that which they should try to obtain. The whole

arrangement has again been altered since the time of which I have

spoken.]

I had also a commission from the Foreign Office, for which I had

asked, to make an effort on behalf of an international copyright

between the United States and Great Britain,--the want of which is

the one great impediment to pecuniary success which still stands

in the way of successful English authors. I cannot say that I have

never had a shilling of American money on behalf of reprints of my

work; but I have been conscious of no such payment. Having found

many years ago--in 1861, when I made a struggle on the subject,

being then in the States, the details of which are sufficiently

amusing [Footnote: In answer to a question from myself, a certain

American publisher--he who usually reprinted my works--promised me

that IF ANY OTHER AMERICAN PUBLISHER REPUBLISHED MY WORK ON AMERICA

BEFORE HE HAD DONE SO, he would not bring out a competing edition,

though there would be no law to hinder him. I then entered into an

agreement with another American publisher, stipulating to supply

him with early sheets; and he stipulating to supply me a certain

royalty on his sales, and to supply me with accounts half-yearly.

I sent the sheets with energetic punctuality, and the work was

brought out with equal energy and precision--by my old American

publishers. The gentleman who made the promise had not broken his

word. No other American edition had come out before his. I never

got any account, and, of course, never received a dollar.]--that

I could not myself succeed in dealing with American booksellers, I

have sold all foreign right to the English publishers; and though

I do not know that I have raised my price against them on that

score, I may in this way have had some indirect advantage from

the American market. But I do know that what the publishers have

received here is very trifling. I doubt whether Messrs. Chapman &

Hall, my present publishers, get for early sheets sent to the States

as much as 5 per cent. on the price they pay me for my manuscript.

But the American readers are more numerous than the English, and

taking them all through, are probably more wealthy. If I can get

(pounds)1000 for a book here (exclusive of their market), I ought to be

able to get as much there. If a man supply 600 customers with shoes

in place of 300, there is no question as to such result. Why not,

then, if I can supply 60,000 readers instead of 30,000?

I fancied that I knew that the opposition to an international

copyright was by no means an American feeling, but was confined to

the bosoms of a few interested Americans. All that I did and heard

in reference to the subject on this further visit,--and having

a certain authority from the British Secretary of State with me I

could hear and do something,--altogether confirmed me in this view.

I have no doubt that if I could poll American readers, or American

senators,--or even American representatives, if the polling could

be unbiassed,--or American booksellers, [Footnote: I might also say

American publishers, if I might count them by the number of heads,

and not by the amount of work done by the firms.] that an assent

to an international copyright would be the result. The state of

things as it is is crushing to American authors, as the publishers

will not pay them a liberal scale, knowing that they can supply

their customers with modern English literature without paying for

it. The English amount of production so much exceeds the American,

that the rate at which the former can be published rules the

market. it is equally injurious to American booksellers,--except

to two or three of the greatest houses. No small man can now acquire

the exclusive right of printing and selling an English book. If

such a one attempt it, the work is printed instantly by one of the

leviathans,--who alone are the gainers. The argument of course is,

that the American readers are the gainers,--that as they can get

for nothing the use of certain property, they would be cutting their

own throats were they to pass a law debarring themselves from the

power of such appropriation. In this argument all idea of honesty

is thrown to the winds. It is not that they do not approve of

a system of copyright,--as many great men have disapproved,--for

their own law of copyright is as stringent as is ours. A bold

assertion is made that they like to appropriate the goods of other

people; and that, as in this case, they can do so with impunity,

they will continue to do so. But the argument, as far as I have been

able to judge, comes not from the people, but from the bookselling

leviathans, and from those politicians whom the leviathans are able

to attach to their interests. The ordinary American purchaser is

not much affected by slight variations in price. He is at any rate

too high-hearted to be affected by the prospect of such variation.

It is the man who wants to make money, not he who fears that he may

be called upon to spend it, who controls such matters as this in

the United States. It is the large speculator who becomes powerful

in the lobbies of the House, and understands how wise it may

be to incur a great expenditure either in the creation of a great

business, or in protecting that which he has created from competition.

Nothing was done in 1868,--and nothing has been done since (up to

1876). A Royal Commission on the law of copyright is now about to

sit in this country, of which I have consented to be a member; and

the question must then be handled, though nothing done by a Royal

Commission here can effect American legislators. But I do believe

that if the measure be consistently and judiciously urged, the

enemies to it in the States will gradually be overcome. Some years

since we had some quasi private meetings, under the presidency of

Lord Stanhope, in Mr. John Murray's dining-room, on the subject of

international copyright. At one of these I discussed this matter of

American international copyright with Charles Dickens, who strongly

declared his conviction that nothing would induce an American to

give up the power he possesses of pirating British literature. But

he was a man who, seeing clearly what was before him, would not

realise the possibility of shifting views. Because in this matter

the American decision had been, according to his thinking, dishonest,

therefore no other than dishonest decision was to be expected from

Americans. Against that idea I protested, and now protest. American

dishonesty is rampant; but it is rampant only among a few. It

is the great misfortune of the community that those few have been

able to dominate so large a portion of the population among which

all men can vote, but so few can understand for what they are

voting.

Since this was written the Commission on the law of copyright has

sat and made its report. With the great body of it I agree, and

could serve no reader by alluding here at length to matters which

are discussed there. But in regard to this question of international

copyright with the United States, I think that we were incorrect

in the expression of an opinion that fair justice,--or justice

approaching to fairness,--is now done by American publishers to

English authors by payments made by them for early sheets. I have

just found that (pounds)20 was paid to my publisher in England for the

use of the early sheets of a novel for which I received (pounds)1600 in

England. When asked why he accepted so little, he assured me that

the firm with whom he dealt would not give more. "Why not go to

another firm?" I asked. No other firm would give a dollar, because

no other firm would care to run counter to that great firm which

had assumed to itself the right of publishing my books. I soon after

received a copy of my own novel in the American form, and found

that it was published for 7 1/2d. That a great sale was expected

can be argued from the fact that without a great sale the paper and

printing necessary for the republication of a three-volume novel

could not be supplied. Many thousand copies must have been sold.

But from these the author received not one shilling. I need hardly

point out that the sum of (pounds)20 would not do more than compensate

the publisher for his trouble in making the bargain. The publisher

here no doubt might have refused to supply the early sheets, but

he had no means of exacting a higher price than that offered. I

mention the circumstance here because it has been boasted, on behalf

of the American publishers, that though there is no international

copyright, they deal so liberally with English authors as to make

it unnecessary that the English author should be so protected.

With the fact of the (pounds)20 just brought to my knowledge, and with the

copy of my book published at 7 1/2d. now in my hands, I feel that

an international copyright is very necessary for my protection.

They among Englishmen who best love and most admire the United

States, have felt themselves tempted to use the strongest language

in denouncing the sins of Americans. Who can but love their personal

generosity, their active and far-seeking philanthropy, their love

of education, their hatred of ignorance, the general convictions

in the minds of all of them that a man should be enabled to walk

upright, fearing no one and conscious that he is responsible for

his own actions? In what country have grander efforts been made by