April 14 Friday – Isabel Lyon’s journal #2: “At the meeting of the Copyright League yesterday [Apr. 13], Mr. Clemens stayed long enough to hear Mr. Solberg’s suggestion for a mixed Copyright Commission of authors[,] artists, publishers etc. discussed & accepted. The Commission will recommend extension of Copyright limit” [MTP TS 13].
Isabel Lyon’s journal # 2: “The Publisher’s League was to[o] much today”[ibid.].
At 21 Fifth Ave. in N.Y.C. Isabel V. Lyon wrote for Sam to Edward Everett Hale.
M . Clemens directs me to write for him thanking you for M . Spofford’s letter, and returning it herewith. He wishes me to say that the copyright matter is moving here; that yesterday he went to a meeting of the American Copyright League and stayed long enough to hear M . Solberg’s suggestion for a mixed copyright commission of authors, artists, publishers etc discussed & accepted. The Commission will recommend extension of copyright-limits. The Publishers’ League was to meet to-day, (to pass upon the same matter M . Clemens thinks)—he has no news yet. M . Clemens & his family leave for Dublin N.H. the first of May to remain until Nov., but he expects to keep in touch with the movement [MTP].
Notes: Ainsworth Rand Spofford (1825-1908), American journalist and publisher, sixth Librarian of Congress (1864-1897); Thorvald Solberg (1852-1949), first Register of Copyrights (1897-1930) in the US Copyright office. An authority on copyright, he played an instrumental role in the formulation of the Copyright Act of 1909. Based on Lyon’s journal entries for Apr. 13 and 14, the Copyright League meeting was held on Apr. 13. Thus, this letter, which had been catalogued as “ca. Apr. 11” is now placed to Apr. 14.
John S. Phillips for American Magazine wrote to Sam: “We sent you a little while ago a copy of ‘The Troll Garden’ by Miss Willa Sibert Cather….We are venturing to call it to the attention of a few people, like yourself, of discernment and appreciation of the better sort of thing” [Gribben 133]. Note: Willa Cather (1873-1947) wrote of frontier life on the Great Plains. The Troll Garden (1905) was a collection of short stories.