- Brief description
- Legal documents relating to the Lee & Haddock piracy of A Christmas Carol
- Label
- As copyright laws at the time were weak, many of Dickens's early stories were frequently pirated or imitated. After publishing A Christmas Carol in December 1843, a pirated version of the story by Richard E Lee and John Haddock appeared weeks later in the cheap weekly magazine Parley's Illuminated Library. Dickens successfully sued them, boasting they were 'bruised, bloody, battered, smashed, squelched, and utterly undone'. However they declared bankruptcy and Dickens was unable to extract any money from them. The court costs, coupled with the expensive printing of the genuine A Christmas Carol, meant Dickens made very little money from the successful story.
- Collection
- Archives & Manuscripts
- Object number
- B242
- Object type
- document
- Production person
- Mitton, Thomas
Dodgson, H H
Talfourd, Thomas - Production date
- 10/01/1844-28/02/1844
Home
/ B242