Longfellow, Henry W.:

$2,250 · Offered by William Reese Company

[AUTOGRAPH LETTER, SIGNED H.W.L., FROM LONGFELLOW TO PUBLISHER JAMES OSGOOD, DISCUSSING RUMORS OF A PIRATED EDITION OF "HANGING OF THE CRANE"]. A noteworthy letter from Longfellow to his publisher at the height of his career, discussing a supposed unauthorized edition published by Routledge in London based on the American copyright printing sheets printed by Osgood in Boston the month prior. Stephen Weissman, in his 1986 catalogue of American literature from the Pforzheimer Library, describes this letter as follows:"A bibliographically important letter, quoted in full by Livingstone in his bibliography of Longfellow, and partly reproduced by BAL ('location of original letter not known'). Longfellow writes to inform his American publisher that Routledge in London has issued a premature and unauthorized edition of his Hanging of the Crane: 'I know nothing about this unpleasant business beyond the fact that Routledge has published the book. This I learn from a London newspaper, "The Echo,"...I sent Routledge a copy for the use of artists, in the desire of saving time. I did not authorize him to publish it in any shape, but only asked what terms he would offer for an illustrated edition.' Longfellow's fears were unjustified. What Routledge had done was to print up a few copies of the text for copyright purposes, one of which was deposited in the British Museum, where it still remains (the only copy described by BAL). In the end illustrated editions were published more or less sim

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