Printed Books & Early American Photography, including Selections from the Larry Ness Collection

1p., 8vo (184 x 114 mm), folds.

In full: "Your testimonials of service appear to be defective for want of the answers of the agent which you will please to send as early as possible. I am, Sir, your obedient servant..."

Robert Maugham, grandfather of William Somerset, was a major legal figure in London during the nineteenth century, particularly in the area of copyright law. Maugham emphasized the historical evolution of copyright, surveying the period from the advent of printing to the Statute of Anne (1710), and criticized what he saw as two principal injustices: the statutorily limited copyright term and the requirements for library deposit, which he considered both economically unfair and detrimental to authors. Maugham advocated for significant reform. He argued passionately for the extension—if not perpetuation—of literary copyright and for reduction in the number of copies authors were required to deposit for public libraries, especially the British Museum. To support his stance, Maugham marshaled various historical sources and cited authorities from British and continental traditions, including John Milton and continental perspectives from France and Germany, presenting these in an appendix to the treatise. His arguments helped shape the ongoing nineteenth-century debate on copyright law, and his treatise became a standard reference, informing legal discussion in Britain and the United States throughout the century.

[With:] Postal cover addressed to W. Somerset Maugham's father, Robert Ormond Maugham (1823-1884), at his Paris law office. W. Somerset Maugham lived with his parents in Paris. This cover is postmarked 16 February 1882 - two weeks after Maugham's mother, Edith, died of tuberculosis.