to that
person. At the same time he will write to this agent, telling him of
the shipment and requesting him to enter the book for copyright and
publish it in England on or about such a date. He will, of course,
allow sufficient time for the books to reach London, and he will
carefully point out in his letter any American holidays which occur
near the probable date of publication. Upon receiving the books, the
London agent will cable the New York publisher the date on which he
will publish the book, taking care to allow an interval of a day or
two, because of a possible delay.

On the day agreed upon, the New York publisher proceeds to copyright
and publish his book in this country in the usual manner, while the
London agent does the same abroad, delivering to the British Museum
one copy of the book, and to Stationer's Hall, for use in certain
libraries, four copies. Both of them will on that day sell at least
one or two copies which will constitute a legal publication.

It is the custom with many publishers to establish the publication day
of all of their books, by displaying a few copies, or by actually
selling one or more copies to some one. In the case of a very popular
copyrighted book which it is desirable to have the retailers all over
the country begin to sell on the same day, it is deemed safer to make
this technical publication before any of the books are distributed
through the trade. A record of the first sales entered in a
publisher's sales-book in the course of business would effectually
prevent any one from claiming in after years a right to reprint a book
on the ground that the claim, title, and copies were not originally
filed until after the book had been put upon the market.

Under a recent amendment in our law, an author of a book in a foreign
language, who is a citizen of one of the foreign countries which
allows to our citizens the same copyright privileges as are allowed to
its own countrymen, is permitted to file in the Copyright Office
within thirty days after its publication in a foreign country a copy
of his book with a formal declaration that he is the author and that
he intends to translate it or to print it in its original language and
to apply for copyright in the United States. After doing this, he is
allowed one year in which to complete his proposed translation or to
print it in the original language and copyright it here.

Before this statute was passed, two or more persons could t