The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 120, October, 1867: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and PoliticsVarious
General
The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 120, October, 1867: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics
Various
American periodicals
We trust Messrs. Ticknor and Fields will not regard it as an affront to
their delicacy if we allude here to facts which recent events have in part
disclosed to the public. This house, on principle, and as an essential part
of their system, send to foreign authors a share of the proceeds of their
works, and this they have habitually done for twenty-five years. The first
American edition of the Poems of Mr. Tennyson, published by them in 1842,
consisted of one thousand copies, and it was three years in selling; but
upon this edition a fair acknowledgment in money was sent to the poet.
Since that time, Mr. Tennyson has received from them a certain equitable
portion of the proceeds of all the numerous editions of his works which
they have issued. Mr. Fields, with great labor and some expense, collected
from periodicals and libraries a complete set of the works of Mr. De
Quincey, which the house published in twenty-two volumes, the sale of which
was barely remunerative; but the author received, from time to time, a sum
proportioned to the number of volumes sold. Mr. Fields has been recently
gathering the "Early and Late Papers" of Mr. Thackeray, one volume of which
has been published, to the great satisfaction of the public. Miss Thackeray
has already received a considerable sum for the sale of the first edition.
Mr. Browning, Mr. Hughes, Mr. Reade, the Country Parson, Mr. Kingsley, Mr.
Matthew Arnold, Dr. John Brown, Mr. Mayne Reid, Mr. Dickens, have been
dealt with in a similar manner; some of them receiving copyright, and
others a sum of money proportioned to the sale or expected sale of their
works. Nor has the appearance of rival editions been allowed to diminish
the author's share of the profits realized upon the editions published with
their consent. Mr. Tennyson counts upon the American part of his income
with the same certainty as upon that which he derives from the sale of his
works in England, although he cannot secure his Boston publishers the
exclusive market of the United States. We dare not comment upon these
facts, because, if we were to indulge our desire to do so, the passage
would be certain "to turn up missing" upon the printed page, since Messrs.
Ticknor and Fields live two hundred miles nearer the office of the Atlantic
Monthly than we do. Happily, comment is needless. Every man who has either
a conscience or a talent for business will recognize either the propriety
or the wisdom of their conduct. Upon this rock of fair-dealing the eminent
and long-sustained prosperity of this house is founded.
The following note appeared recently in "The Athenæum":--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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