Thanks, Vic, this definitely answers my questions. Holiday best to you & 
also glowing off-season--wasn't last year just the best?--hot stove 
wishes. Darryl

On 12/12/12 12:01 PM, Vic Fischer wrote:
> On 12/12/2012 10:28 AM, Darryl Brock wrote:
>> Can anybody tell me when TS was available to readers in the US? In
>> bookstores and/or via subscription, when in 1876 did it appear?
>>
> The first Tom Sawyer volumes available in the U.S. were pirated volumes
> from the Belford Brothers in Toronto, issued on 29 July 1876. On 2
> November, Clemens complained to his English agent, Moncure Conway, that
> “Belford Bros., Canadian thieves, are flooding America with a cheap
> pirated edition of Tom Sawyer” and on 3 December he wrote Conway again:
> “The Canadian ‘Tom Sawyer’ has actually taken the market away from us in
> every village in the Union. We cannot accomplish anything against the
> newsdealers because the newsdealer is privileged to sell a pirated book
> until we give him personal and distinct notice that that book is
> copyrighted. The Publishers say that as near as their lawyers can make
> it out, English copyright is not worth anything in Canada, unless it is
> recorded in Canada, within sixty days after publication” (MTLP, 105-107;
> see John Gerber’s introduction in the Iowa-California The Adventures of
> Tom Sawyer, Tom Sawyer Abroad, and Tom Sawyer, Detective, 20-25). The
> first American edition appeared on 8 December 1876.
>
> Vic Fischer
>