COPYRIGHT AND EARLY BOOKS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 990, 3 December 1910, Page 9

COPYRIGHT AND EARLY BOOKS.

The late Alexander Macraillan—if one may generalise from two instances furnished by Mr. Graves in'his "Life, .and Letters" of that publisher—seems to havo been in the way of advising his authors not to part with their copyright. Tho privilege of being able to retain / their rights of is one of the.things that distinguish the artist from tho writer. A painter when ho sells his picture sells his rights, and although he may havo. his vanity hugely flattered when he sees it passing from owner to owner at an over-increasing figure, his coffers are'none tho better! An author stripped of . his copyright is in liko case. Thus it is not' an uncommon thing for a song-writer who has lightly, parted with his lyric for £5 to see it leap into sudden popularity and tho consequent profits—in such cases °*t<ju very .. large—flowing . into thopockets- of others who deserve them less. With writers of bogkg- it is notoriously so also, and it is'sound counsel to an author, if ho believes his work good, not to part with his rights. 0n ; the other hand, it would. seem to bo equally Eound counsel if he believes his work not to bo 'good. That seems to follow from Mr. Oppenheim's experionce. Early in his career as a writer, Mr. Oppenheim published three novels and sold his copyright. They lived for a moment, died, and were forgotten. Now, however, his ship has come in. His namo upon a* book commends it to a largo circle of readers, so his publishers, in ,order to .make, a uniform edition of his works complete, havo reissued his early eft'prts, with the result that tho,.. reviewers,, the public, and the booksellers have mistaken-them for new works'. Now tho publishers, it; will be seen', have done . nothing that they wcro not entitled to do, but evidently tho author nmstisuffer in two ways. For one thing, a growing popularity may bo momentarily checked by tho suspicion that tho author's vein has petered out. or that' he is. over-writing himself, and, for another, the career ,of tho new novel he is actually issuing must bo seriously hampered by competition with thoso -apparent rivals. Now the suggestion that has been maao that . whenever an author's immature work is revived tho author should have an opportunity of revision and of writing a preface is nijt perhaps practical, but it is not too much to expect that in all such cases the useful device adopted by some publishers of printing upon the verso of tho title-page the _ dates of tho first and all succeeding . issues should bo rigorously practised.—"Manchester Guardian."