A man, identified as the “Pirate Publisher,” stands at center with one foot on a large book labeled “Law.” He is wearing 17th century court dress, a large hat with four plumes labeled “American, French, German, [and] English,” and a long cape that appears to be made from the title pages of pirated works of literature; and he is carrying two moneybags. Authors from “America, Germany, France, [and] England” form a half-circle behind him, including “Mark Twain, C. D. Warner, G. W. Cable, E. C. Stedman, F. Brete Hart [i.e., Bret Harte], J. Hay, O. W. Holmes, F. R. Stockton, J. G. Whittier, T. B. Aldrich, W. D. Howells, J. R. Lowell, Heyse, Ebers, Scheffel, Zola, Sardou, A. Daudet, Jules Verne, Gilbert, Browning, Burnard, Hughes, Tennyson, [and] W. Collins.” Some hold papers labeled “James Payn, Louis Carroll, Thomas Hardy, [and] R. L. Stevenson.” They are accusing the man of illegally publishing their work without compensating them, while the man maintains that he has a legal right to publish their books. There is a jack-in-the-box labeled “The Hugh Conway Posthumous Producer.” The jack holds a knife in one hand and a gun in the other. Includes choruses “of British Authors…French Victims…German and other Sufferers, [and] Humble American Authors.”
Collection
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs
Creation Date
1886-02-24
