Item Info

Accession Number: 86-2765
Physical Description: [2] pages, envelope
Transcription:

                                                                                                          London.    1 Devonshire Terrace 
                                                                                                                        York Gate Regents Park
                                                                                                                                Second March 1843
My Dear Prescott.
    You are playing at blindmans buff with International copyrights, I see. In the existing state of the law (whereof the folks at Washington have the full credit) no transmission of early copies, secures a copyright in this country. All you gain is priority of publication; and at this moment anybody who thought it worth his while could print Madame de Calderon’s book, or yours, on his own account, without paying the author one sixpence. Therefore what you have to consider in the disposal of your own wares, is, who will give you the most, for the desperate chance he purchases.
    Chapman and Hall are going to write you by this packet, and therefore I will leave business matters to them. We are all well, and unite in cordial regards to yourself, and Mrs. Prescott, and all your house.
    As to the Pirates, let them wave their black flag, and rob under it, and stab into the bargain, until the crack of doom.  I should hardly be comfortable if I knew they bought the right of blackguarding me in the Model Republic; but while they steal it, I am happy. So hurrah for Spring; which, I hope, by the time you get this, will be drawing upon us in England; and may we all enjoy what Leigh Hunt calls “the leafy greenery” as much as Heaven meant us to, in sending it!
                                                                         Faithfully your friend My Dear Prescott
                                                                                                    Charles Dickens
W. H. Prescott Esquire.

MssDate: Second March 1843.
Media Type: Letters
Source: Rare Book Department
Recipient: Prescott, William Hickling, 1796-1859.
Provenance: Seven Gables Mar 75, Gratz

Bibliography:

The Letters of Charles Dickens, Pilgrim Edition, Volume Three, 1842-1843, p. 456.

Country: Creation Place Note:Devonshire Terrace
Country:England
City/Town/Township:London

Call Number: DL P922 1843-03-02
Creator Name: Dickens, Charles, 1812-1870 - Author