LETTER XLVIII. Republication of Parley's Tales in London. Mr. Tony's operatu na tated by other publishers - Peter Pariey Martin Letter to Mr in — An edition of the false Parieys in America... The consequences MY DEAR C When I was in London, in 1582, I learned that Mr. Tegg, then a prominent publisher there, hi commenced the republication of Parley's Tales, I called upon him, and found that he hal one of t... actually in press. The result of our intervww.s a contract, in which I engaged to prepare s As my ciast to the authors? ip of the Parsey lace las in London, by an terested polsters, I thay an w ma 'e with, Mr Tegg, wi ch is now bet re me. sally admitted that the works published by } m, wire the frat • introd, wed to name of Peter lar.ey to the p." ** Now »a i Godr his to res se sa-l works and care? them for pubi cati n, andi sa i Tegg in to get pargitator mis be agrees to pay na. 14ɔ wal*. £. five pe an, ls on the le voy {sf@ tk° saut, at ! vepས་པias@་གླ་འཔགསུ་ཟུར་ of these works, which he agreed to publish, giving me a small consideration therefor. Four of these works I prepared on the spot, and after my return to America, prepared and forwarded ten others. Some time after, I learned that the books, or at least a portion of them, had been published in London, and were very successful. I wrote to Mr. Tegg several letters on the subject, but could get no reply. Ten years passed away, and being in pressing need of all that I might fairly claim as my due, I went to London, and asked Mr. Tegg to render me an account of his proceedings, under the contract. I had previously learned, on inquiry, that he had indeed published four or five of the works as we had agreed, but taking advantage of these, which passed readily into extensive circulation, he proceeded to set aside the contract, and to get up a series of publications upon the model of those I had prepared for him, giving them, in the title-pages, the name of Parley, and passing them off upon the public, by every artifice, in his power, as the genuine works of that after the first edition, and also a premium or bonus of five pounds on each work (in addition to the above stipulations), when four thousand copies are sold or disposed of, of the same. "And when said Goodrich is out of the country, said Tegg is to furnish certificates of sales, &c., as may be required by said Goodrich or his agent. Said Tegg, it is understood, is not bound to publish any of these works which he deems unsuited to the country; but said Goodrich is at liberty to dispose of, to any other publisher, any work which said Tegg, on application, declines publishing. "London, June 30, 1832." "THOMAS TEGG, author. He had thus published over a dozen volumes, which he was circulating as "Peter Parky's Library." The speculation, as I was told, had with ceeded admirably, and I was assured that many tho sand pounds of profit had been realized thereby, To my request for an account of his stewards. p. Mr. Tegg replied, in general terms, that I was misin formed as to the success of the works in question; that, in fact, they had been a very indifferent spalation; that he found the original works were not adapted to his purpose, and he had consequently got up others; that he had created, by advertising ar i other means, an interest in these works, and had ti greatly benefited the name and fame of Parly, ani, all things considered, he thought he had done more for me than I had for him; therefore, in his view, if we cousi lered the account balanced, we should not be very far from a fair adjustment. To this cool answer I made a suitable reply, t without obtaining the slightest satisfetten. T... contract I had made was a hasty memorandam, an i jadually, perhaps, of no banding effect on him. Ai besides, I had no money to expend in lit at on A little reflection satisfied me that I was totally at Tezz's merey-a fact of wh. h his ca'ta at. I es "v} manter as red me he was even more cotimco is tra myself. The disc ass, it was not prilagod. Attor second interview he eat the whole matter st. rt, by saying -"S.r, I do not owe you a farthing; notar justice nor law require me to pay you any thing. Still, I am an old man, and have seen a good deal of life, and have learned to consider the feelings of others as well as my own. I will pay you four hundred pounds, and we will be quits! If we can not do this, we can do nothing." In view of the whole case, this was as much as I expected, and so I accepted the proposition. I earnestly remonstrated with Mr. Tegg against the enormity of making me responsible for works I never wrote, but as to all actual claims on the ground of the contract, I gave him a receipt in full, and we parted. Some years after this Mr. Tegg died, but his establishment passed into the hands of one of his sons, with another person, by whom it is still continued; the false "Parley's Library" having been recently enlarged by the addition of other counterfeits.* An example so tempting and so successful as that I have described, was sure to be followed by others, and ere long many of the first publishers of juvenile works in London, had employed persons to write books under the name of Peter Parley-every thing being done in the title-pages, prefaces, advertisements, &c., to make the public receive them as genuine works. The extent to which this business was carried, and the position in which it placed me, may be gathered from a letter I addressed to a publishing house in London some two years since, and which was substantially as follows: * For a list of some of these works see p. 551; see also, p. 553. chievous to me as well as to the public, that I have brought an action against Darton & Co,* one of the principal. London honses concerned in this fraud, and I hope to have it decided that an author who gives value to a name-even though it be fictitions -may be protected in its use and profit, as well as the Ams keng Manufacturing Company for their trade-mark, "A No. 1," put upon their cottons, and which the courts have decided to be their property. In general, my rights in regard to the use of the name of Parley, have been respected in the United States; but it appears that about two years ago, when I was in Europe, a New York bookseller-under the inspiration of a man who writes Reverend before his name—undertook to follow in the footsteps of these English counterfeiters; so he put forth two volumes, naming the one Parley's Pictorial, and the other Parley's Household Library, &c. I understand that these are made up of oid p`ates from Parley's Magazine, with slight alterations so as to dispa the real nature and origin of the works. In order more cornpletely to deceive the public, he attached the above titles, which imply that these works are by me, and are issued, in their proset t form, by my sanction. Thus the innocent publie is duped. In point of fact, there not, I think, a page of my writing in these volumes, etcet fig passages taken from my works, in violation of my copyra ta, The credit of originating these productions belongs, I believe, to the reverend gentleman above alluded to, and not to the přiblisher-though the latter, knowing the character of the works, auds and abets their circulation. A still more recent instance of this borrowed use of Peter Parley's name has been brought to my notice. A few days since a man named .............! who, it is said, has been a government employe abroad, and has lately got leave to return, was introduced to one of the pable schoc is in this city as the verita bie author of Peter Parley's Tales. To certify his identity, it |