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The letter to Howells which follows was written a short time before
the passage of the copyright extension bill, which rendered Mark
Twain's new plan, here mentioned, unneeded--at least for the time.
*
****
To W. D. Howells, in New York:
Monday, Oct. 26, '08.
Oh, I say! Where are you hiding, and why are you hiding? You promised
to come here and you didn't keep your word. (This sounds like
astonishment--but don't be misled by that.)
Come, fire up again on your fiction-mill and give us another good
promise. And this time keep it--for it is your turn to be astonished.
Come and stay as long as you possibly can. I invented a new copyright
extension scheme last Friday, and sat up all night arranging its
details. It will interest you. Yesterday I got it down on paper in as
compact a form as I could. Harvey and I have examined the scheme, and
to-morrow or next day he will send me a couple of copyright-experts to
arrange about getting certain statistics for me.
Authors, publishers and the public have always been damaged by the
copyright laws. The proposed amendment will advantage all three--the
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