3684. RB to James Thomas Fields

As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 22, 12.

Paris,

Nov. 29. 1855.

My dear Sir,

I take advantage of the opportunity of the publication in the United States of my “Men & Women,”—for printing which, you, through being more righteous than the Law, [1] have liberally remunerated me,—to express my earnest desire that the power of publishing in America this and every subsequent work of mine may rest exclusively with you & your house.

I am, my dear Sir, with high esteem,

Yours faithfully,

Robert Browning.

Address, on integral page: James J. [sic] Fields Esq, / Boston. U.S.A.

Docket, near address: Left by Mr Story.

Publication: Robert Browning, Men and Women (Boston, 1856), [2] p. [v], as to Messrs. Ticknor and Fields.

Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.

1. Cf. Matthew 5:20. The lack of an international copyright law resulted in the piracy of authors’ works by publishers on both sides of the Atlantic. Though under no legal obligation, Ticknor and Fields chose to make a one-time payment of £60 to RB for the proofsheets of Men and Women in order to be the first to publish the work in America.

2. RB’s letter was too late to be included in the first American printing of Men and Women on 8 December 1855, but it did appear in the second printing of 11 February 1856 (and subsequent printings). The first print run was 2000 copies; the second, 500 copies (see Louise Greer, Browning and America, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 1952, p. 256).

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