California Copyrights, 1851-1856
With Notes on Certain Ghost Books
By Edith Margaret Coulter
WHAT WAS the first California book to be copyrighted, and what type of material did our early California authors and artists consider worthy of protection under the copyright law? Probably not one in a hundred readers of this magazine can answer these questions without referring to the pages that follow. Book collectors and bibliographers have long been interested in the earliest California imprints, but little attention has been given to the first copyrights, although a complete record of the books, maps, and prints entered for copyright in California from 1851 to 1870 has been preserved. The Copyright Record Book of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California may be consulted in the Rare Book Room of the Library of Congress.^ A microfilm of the Record, secured by the writer in 1940, and an enlarged photo-print of each entry are now in the Bancroft Library, at the University of California. A study of this Record for the years 1 85 1 to 1856 appears of considerable in- terest in that it gives a picture of the product of the local presses during the early years of statehood. Of the books entered during this period twenty- two titles have not been identified, and they may therefore be considered California ghost books until copies make their appearance.
The history of copyright legislation as it affected California is here briefly stated. Prior to the adoption of the Federal Constitution, all of the original states, except Delaware, had passed copyright laws.^ This early legislation was due largely to the interest of Noah Webster, who journeyed from state to state advocating the protection of the rights of authors. The encouragement of letters by securing to authors for a limited time the exclusive ownership of their writings was not then a new idea to the delegates to the Federal Convention in Philadelphia. Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution contained the principle, but it was necessary to enact legislation to provide for the administration of the copyright privilege. Consequently, "An act for the encouragement of learning by securing the copies of maps, charts and books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the time therein mentioned," was approved at the second session of the First Congress, May 31, 1790.^ This law required that the author or proprietor deposit a copy of any book or map published, or deposit a printed copy of the title of such book or
map, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court where the author or proprietor shall reside. The Clerk was required to record the entry in a book
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