Page:Copyright, Its History And Its Law (1912).djvu/486

 notably Copinger, summarize in some measure the early history of copyright.

Perhaps the earliest American publication distinctively on copyright was the "Remarks on literary property," by Philip H. Nicklin, in 1838, in which he included as an appendix a reprint of Joseph Lowe's summary of copyright history and practice up to 1819, from the Encyclopaedia Britannica supplement, and argued for longer, if not perpetual copyright for our own authors, on the plea that "charity begins at home," as well as for international copyright throughout a world-wide republic of letters. The later movements in America for international copyright brought out much writing, though largely in periodical articles and pamphlets, among the most noteworthy of which were Dr. Francis Lieber's letter "On international copyright," of 1840, Henry C. Carey's "Letters on international copyright," of 1853, and "The international copyright question considered," of 1872, George Haven Putnam's monograph on "International copyright," of 1878, and Richard Grant White's "American view of the copyright question," of 1880.

During the copyright campaign leading to the act of 1891, several pamphlets were issued on behalf of the American (Authors) Copyright League, notably Rev. Dr. Henry van Dyke's "National sin of piracy," of 1888, and Prof. Brander Matthews's "Cheap books and good books," on the texts of James Russell Lowell's epigram, "There is one thing better than a cheap book, and that is a book honestly come by," and George William Curtis's words, "Cheap books are good things, but cheapening the public conscience is a very bad thing,"—which last paper is reprinted in Putnam's "Question of copyright."

The leading American law book writer has been