Opinion ID: 753727
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Correspondence of Bigham in connection with her duties as literary executrix;

Text: 17 3. Publisher's typescript with editor's blue-penciled emendations of Rawlings' The Secret River (a children's book posthumously published by Bigham); 18 4. Miscellaneous original typescripts, manuscripts, and story ideas written by Rawlings, including her first unpublished novel, Blood of My Blood; 19 5. Letters written from Bigham to Rawlings from 1940 to 1953. 4 20 After compiling the catalog of documents, Horowitz contacted Dr. James Meriwether, an officer of Seajay, about the letters. Seajay is a small, non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing public aware ness of, and interest in, unduly neglected aspects of South Carolina and southern culture. After negotiations, Seajay obtained the documents by partial purchase and partial gift from the Bigham estate. 21 After purchasing the documents, Seajay made one whole copy of Blood Of My Blood for Dr. Anne Blythe (Blythe). Blood of My Blood is Rawlings' first novel; it was written in 1928, is 183 pages long, and has never been published. Blythe, also an officer of Seajay, used the copy in preparing a critical review of Blood of My Blood. Seajay made the copy so that Blythe would not damage the fragile original during her analysis. Seajay also made a partial copy 5 of the manuscript which it sent to the Rare Books Room at the University of Florida Library. Seajay made this copy for the dual purpose of allowing Baskin, or his designee, to view and authenticate it, and allowing the University of Florida Press to view it and determine if it was worthy of publication. Access to the copy was restricted, and photocopying it was prohibited. 6 The University of Florida Library eventually returned its copy to Seajay. 22 In April of 1988, Blythe orally presented her critical analysis of Blood of My Blood to a symposium of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society at the University of Florida. Between 150 and 200 members of Rawlings Society attended the symposium. In the presentation, Blythe quoted approximately 2,464 words from the text of Blood of My Blood, or four to six percent of the total text. Blythe submitted a hard copy of her paper for publication with the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society Journal. She also hoped to publish an edited version of her presentation as an introduction to Blood of My Blood, which the University of Florida Press wanted to publish in its entirety. Blythe was aware that neither the Society's Symposium nor the University of Florida Press would be able to publish her article, much less Blood of My Blood, without first obtaining the permission of the copyright holder. Neither publisher was able to secure the necessary permission, thus neither Blood of My Blood nor Blythe's paper has ever been published. 7 23 On February 9, 1990, the St. John's County, Florida probate court re-opened administration of Rawlings' estate, allowing Baskin to bring this suit on behalf of the estate. Baskin then filed the original Complaint, in which he sought recovery of the documents from Seajay, on May 18, 1990. He amended his Complaint on September 21, 1990 to include the Foundation's claim for damages and injunctive relief under the Copyright Act. At trial, on September 6, 1991, Baskin and the Foundation amended the Amended Complaint so that the Foundation could also assert an action for recovery of the documents under Count I. On February 5, 1997, the district court entered final judgment in favor of Seajay as to Counts I and II and its counterclaim.