A History of the McGuffey Readers

by Henry Hobart Vail

This separation of the partnership took place in 1841 and although there is no documentary evidence of the exact method in which it was brought about, the division of assets was in accord with the spirit of the incident as handed down by tradition.

Mr. Truman's apparent disgust with the schoolbook business may have come in part from a lawsuit in which his firm was made a defendant. Sooner or later, publishers are quite likely to obtain some elementary instructions as to the meaning and intent of the copyright law through action taken in court. Messrs. Truman & Smith took a lesson in 1838.

On October 1st of that year Benjamin F. Copeland and Samuel Worcester brought suit in the court of the United States against Truman & Smith and William H. McGuffey for infringement of copyright, alleging that material had been copied from Worcester's Second, Third, and Fourth Readers and that even the plan of the two latter readers had been pirated.

A temporary injunction was issued December 25, 1838; but before that date the McGuffey Readers had been carefully compared with the Worcester Readers and every selection was removed that seemed in the slightest degree an invasion of the previous copyright of the Worcester Readers. As these McGuffey books were still not stereotyped, it cost no more to set up new matter than to reset the old. On the title page of each book appeared the words, "Revised and Improved Edition," and two pages in explanation and defense were inserted. In these the publishers stated that certain compilers of schoolbooks, in New England, felt themselves aggrieved that the McGuffey books contained a portion of matter similar to their own which was considered common property, and had instituted legal proceedings against them with a view to the immediate suppression of the McGuffey books and in the meantime had provided supplies of the Worcester books to meet the demand of the West.

No objection was raised to meeting these compilers on their own grounds; but for both parties there was another tribunal than the law. "The public never choose schoolbooks to please compilers." They stated that to place themselves entirely in the right and remove every cause for cavil or complaint they had expunged everything claimed as original, and substituted other matter, which, both for its fitness and variety would add to the value of the Eclectic Readers. Throughout this preface, after stating the facts regarding the suit, there was a strong claim for the support of Western enterprise.

Although in this appeal the publishers stated that the correspondences between the two series were "few and immaterial," a careful comparison of the early edition of the Second Reader with the "Revised and Improved Edition" shows that Mr. Smith took out seventeen selections and inserted in their places new matter. To an unprejudiced examiner it appears that the new matter was better than the old. The old marked copy of Worcester's Second Reader, preserved for all these years, shows ten pieces that were used in both books. It thus appears that the publisher took this opportunity to improve the books as well as to make them unassailable under the copyright law. In three months between the bringing of the suit and the granting of an injunction, Mr. Smith had made his improved edition safe and rendered the injunction practically void.

The court proceeded in the usual manner and appointed a master to examine the books and make report to ascertain what damage had been inflicted on the owners of the Worcester Readers. But Mr. Smith was an attendant in church and doubtless had heard Dr. Beecher read, "Agree with thine adversary quickly while thou art in the way with him, lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison," and he had no desire to remain there until he had "paid the uttermost farthing."

When the master, in the leisurely execution of his duty, made his report nearly two years later, the court found that the defendants had removed from their books the pirated parts and that the suit had been settled by paying the plaintiffs two thousand dollars. There was no further contest about the plan of the two books.

The Worcester Readers had a short and inconspicuous life. When this suit was brought, their publishers were Richardson, Lord and Holbrook of Boston. In 1836 Charles J. Hendee published them, and in 1854 they appeared with the name of Jenks, Hickling & Swan of Boston. These several publishers were probably gobbled up by some imaginary Book Trust sixty years ago.

Dr. McGuffey undoubtedly inserted these selections innocent of any wrong intent and supposed them to be in common use.