Produced by Keren Vergon, David King and PG Distributed Proofreaders
1796-1820
This edition of the correspondence of Charles and Mary Lamb contains 618letters, of which 45 are by Mary Lamb alone. It is the only edition tocontain all Mary Lamb's letters and also a reference to, or abstract of,every letter of Charles Lamb's that cannot, for reasons of copyright, beincluded. Canon Ainger's last edition contains 467 letters and theEvery-man's Library Edition contains 572. In 1905 the BostonBibliophile Society, a wealthy association of American collectors,issued privately—since privately one can do anything—an edition in sixvolumes (limited to 453 sets) of the correspondence of Charles and MaryLamb, containing everything that was available, which means practicallyeverything that was known: the number reaching a total of 762 letters;but it will be many years before such a collection can be issued inEngland, since each of the editions here has copyright matter peculiarto itself. My attempt to induce the American owner of the largest numberof new letters to allow me to copy them from the Boston Bibliophileedition has proved fruitless.
And here a word as to copyright in such documents in England, the law asmost recently laid down being established upon a set of sixteen ofLamb's letters which unhappily are not (except in very brief abstract)in the present edition. These letters, chiefly to Robert Lloyd, werefirst published in Charles Lamb and the Lloyds, under my editorship,in 1900, the right to make copies and publish them having been acquiredby Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. from Mrs. Steeds, a descendant of CharlesLloyd. The originals were then purchased by Mr. J. M. Dent, who includedcopies in his edition of Lamb's letters, under Mr. Macdonald'seditorship, in 1903. Meanwhile Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co. had sold theirrights in the letters to Messrs. Macmillan for Canon Ainger's edition,and when Mr. Dent's edition was issued Messrs. Macmillan with Messrs.Smith, Elder & Co. brought an action. Mr. Dent thereupon acquired fromMr. A. H. Moxon, the son of Emma Isola, Lamb's residuary legatee, allhis rights as representing the original author. The case was heardbefore Mr. Justice Kekewich early in 1906. The judge held that "theproprietor of the author's manuscript in the case of letters, as in thecase of any other manuscript, meant the owner of the actual paper onwhich the matter was written, and that in the case of letters therecipient was the owner. No doubt the writer could restrain therecipient from publishing, and so could the writer's representativesafter death; but although they had the right to restrain others frompublishing, it did not follow that they had the right to publish andacquire copyright. This right was given to the proprietor of themanuscript, who, although he could be restrained from publishing by thewriter's personal representatives, yet, if not so restrained, couldpublish and acquire copyright."
Mr. Dent appealed against this verdict and his appeal was heard onOctober 31 and November 7, 1906, when the decision of Mr. JusticeKekewich was upheld with a clearer definition of the right of restraint.The Court, in deciding (I quote again from Mr. MacGillivray's summary)that "the proprietors of manuscript letters were, after the writer'sdeath, entitled to the copyright in them when published, were careful tomake it clear that they did not intend to overrule the authority ofthose cases where a deceased man's representatives have been heldentitled to