Note 8 to Chapter 4 of the author's Pegasus in Harness: Victorian Publishing and W. M. Thackeray, which University Press of Virginia published in 1992. It has been included in the Victorian Web with the kind permission of the author, who of course retains copyright.
Of course there are exceptions, as when Charles Dickens, to extricate himself from a letter of agreement with Maccone for a new novel, agreed to sell "without reserve" his copyright to Sketches by Boz, second series, and then objected and threatened action when Maccone planned a new edition in imitation of the Pickwick format (Patten, pp. 38-41).
Last modified: 4 April 2001