The New York herald., 1869-08-28
Aashsrs and Publishers in the United
sss'es-capsais nayse RsId's Experi-

Aushsrs and Publishers in the United
sssses-capssis rrayss RsId's Experi-
esce.
With very few happy exceptions the history
Of the unfairly adjusted relations between au-
thors and publishers has been history Of their
quarrels. No love has been lost between them.
That authors regard publishers as their natural
enemies was indicated by the grim humor of
the toast proposed, at the height Of British
anti-Napoleonc fury, by the poet Campbell
ITO Napoleon Bonaparte-he once shot
bookseller" That publishers waste little love
on authors is manifest from their generally
treating them as IL authors had no rights which
publishers ara bound to respect.
In the absence Of an international copyright
law American publishers have seldom recog-
nized any rights whatever on the part of those
English authors whose works they have en-
riched themselves by reprinting. Charles
Reade who has given, so far as he could give,
to certain American publishers pre-emption
right to reprint his works, has had to implore
the rest Of them to abstain from reaping where
they have not sown. Captain Mayne Reid,
who served with distinction In our Mexican
war, and who Is, we understand, naturalized
American citizen, is the author OF thirty or
forty volumes, which have made his name
household word both In Great Britain and In
the United States. Nevertheless he afirms
that he has been so grlevously wronged by his
American publishers as to feel obliged, Ia self
defence, to appeal to public opinion. Accord
ing to Captain Mayne Reds statement he has
learned by bitter experience that as an author
he is expected to do all the work and to sur
render pretty nearly all the profits to the pub
fishers. More unfortunately still, he finds
himself entangled by such contracts that he is
bound to work on hopelessly for the future. As
he expresses it-'T am to labor all the re-
mainder of my life with no hopes of being hon.
estly rewarded. The prospect appals me-" 1t
can be no comfort to him to know that he has
many companions in tribuiation.
Now, what remedy can authors apply to cure
the evils of which they complaint Is it possl-
BILE that writer's Of books are 50 deficient in
common sense as to be unable to devise a
remedy9 What shall hinder them from laying
aside the petty animoslties and jealousies In
which so many of them unwisely indulge,
organizing o simple but strong cooperative
system, similar TO the plans which have
proved successful In other departments of
modern labor, and becoming their own pub
fishers? Until they shall decide upon vigor-
ously doing something Of this sort, they must
submit to the tyranny Of which they complain,
and the same evils will continue to exist in the
sphere Of book writing and publishing that
prevail in the theatrical profession, in which
oil the profits not monopollzed by managers
are absorbed by q few 'stars," while the rank
and file of actors toll for mere pittance.
Perhaps Captain Mayne Reid ought not to
have reckoned upon extraordinary liberality at
the hands Of puritanical publishers in New
England. We have lately seen that with the
godly twang, the pharisaism and the political
claptrap of certain exclusive clique Of
Yankee authors and publishers, with their
jealousy of new writer's and their depreciation
of all outside the ring Of their mutual admira-
ton societies, their tuft-hunting abroad and
their Bohemianism at home, they are not over
scrupulous as to the material which they use
in order to make money and sensation. The
publication Of the revolving Byron scandal
shows to what lengths they cen go with such
ends in view. There is no disputiug about
tastes; and if they prefer their lackadaisical
Longfellow to Byron and his ''thoughts that
breathe and words that burn, we can only pity
them; and as for their dealings with Captain
Mayne Reid, we trust that if they cannot be
generous they will at least try to be just.