LETTER: Autograph letter signed, to Thomas Hughes, author of "Tom Brown's School Days."
WOOD (Ellen), "Mrs. Henry Wood", 1814-1887, novelist and journal editor. Autograph letter signed to Thomas Hughes, M.P., author of "Tom Brown's School Days.". 8vo. Three pages, approximately 300 words. 26 February 1866, from Ashbury House, St. John's Wood.
An important letter referring to Lord Lyttleton's wish to bring in a bill to Parliament with Thomas Hughes's help to protect authors' copyright, a subject on which Mrs. Wood had personally complained to Lord Lyttelton, "...The more I think of the matter and of the law as it stands, the more I feel its great injustice, not only on my own account personally but on that of all authors who may be subjected to the same annoyance...I wish it was the custom for the Prince of Wales to go down to the House and speak - I know he would speak for me. He thinks a great deal of my works and he wrote to ask for my photograph."
The popularity of Mrs. Wood's "East Lynne" brought sharply to light the legal issue. The novel was widely dramatised, with the author receiving no monetary return from those dramatisations. This was thought by some to be unfair, and there was something of a move to change the laws of the land not only for Wood's own claim but so that future authors may be treated fairly when it comes to having their work adapted for the stage. In "Memorials of Mrs. Henry Wood" (1894), page 249, it is said that East Lynne "has been dramatised and played so often that, had the author received a small royalty from every representation, it was long since estimated that it would have returned to her no less a sum than a quarter of a million sterling; but she never received anything." Traces of old mount on the verso of the last leaf.
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