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 >