New book of previously unpublished Mark Twain essays

Posted by Cory Doctorow, April 20, 2009 1:46 PM | permalink

Who is Mark Twain? from Flash Rosenberg on Vimeo.

Julia from HarperStudio sez, "We're publishing a book of previously unpublished pieces by Mark Twain called WHO IS MARK TWAIN? (UK, US) and Flash Rosenberg illustrated a section read by John Lithgow."

Who is Mark Twain, Harper Studio

Buy Who is Mark Twain?, UK

Buy Who is Mark Twain?, US

(Thanks, Julia!)

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Discussion

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#1 posted by Takuan, April 20, 2009 1:52 PM

you're kidding!

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#2 posted by Brainspore, April 20, 2009 1:56 PM

No. Freaking. Way. These essays were just lying around where, now?

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#3 posted by Anonymous, April 20, 2009 2:10 PM

What saddens me is that the copyright law says that all works (including unpublished works) created by authors who died before 1939 are public domain, meaning that these essays are unambiguously in the public domain. But yet that doesn't stop this company from claiming copyright until 2129 over these essays.

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#4 posted by buddy66, April 20, 2009 2:53 PM

So Harper's claims either that Twain was first published in 1895, or they first published him in 1895. If the first, wrong; if the second, they came late to the party. By 1895 he was America's leading public figure. No other American writer achieved such a pinnacle of success.

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#5 posted by Anonymous, April 20, 2009 2:55 PM

I'm confused -- officially, haven't these writings already been published by the Mark Twain Project at UCB? Maybe not for general public consumption, but technically it's incorrect to say "previously unpublished" if they're part of the MTP papers.

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#6 posted by Anonymous, April 20, 2009 4:12 PM

Interesting for corporate publishing, I guess. HarperStudio is to Harper Collins as Saturn is to GM. Innovative until Murray pulls the plug. Face it Bob, if it can happen to someone as talented as Lisa Gallagher, it can happen to you.

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#7 posted by adonai, April 20, 2009 5:21 PM

@#3 - maybe someone should build a $300 book scanner & release the essays into the public domain?

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#8 posted by Fred H, April 20, 2009 9:03 PM

Even Twain's throwaway stuff is good. I psyched.

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#9 posted by lairaja, April 20, 2009 10:59 PM

Collection/derivative is copyrighted. However, cannot see how the essays, individually, which are public domain would revert back to copyright regime. (IANFTUSA)

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#10 posted by CVR, April 21, 2009 6:48 AM

Twain of course eventually came to the position that copyright should be perpetual (i.e. the Sonny Bono / Walt Disney position)

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/23/mark-twains-nutty-19.html

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#11 posted by Anonymous, April 23, 2009 12:19 PM

To get the full backstory on the origin of the work see Bob Hirst's introduction. Bob is the general editor of the Mark Twain foundation: http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780061806186&kitid=4&WT.mc_id=REFL_HS_BKPG_042009