The copyright term at the time was 28 years plus a 14 year renewal for the author or her heirs. She subsequently published a second volume of Little Women, and registered it separately for copyright the following year (all documents reproduced here have an analog for Volume 2, even though they’re been published together ever since). It could also refer to additional copies being requested. Note that I’m not positive about the notations on the upper left corner – they could indicate the renewal dates, but those don’t match with the actual renewals, discussed below.

copyright law in 1859, 1865, and 1867, Alcott would have also needed to deposit copies with the Patent Office and Library of Congress ledgers of deposits for those institutions are both now held by the Library of Congress Rare Book Room. Under the 1831 Copyright Act the registrant deposited a copy with the clerk, who would then forward deposits in bulk to Washington, DC. The Library of Congress searched and didn’t find a title page, which could mean that it hasn’t been found yet, but I kind of suspect that because she deposited the whole book at the time, the Clerk decided a printed title page was unnecessary. This itself was somewhat unusual – copyright registration was usually done prior to publication, and usually the title page was a rough mock-up, not the finished work. Courtesy Library of Congress.Īs the ledger notes, she was filing the claim on her own behalf as author (the forms back then were “he” by default, with extra room for the “s”), and filed a copy with the clerk simultaneously.

District Court for the District of MA, Copyright Ledger. District Court for Massachusetts and paying the fee. And in 1868 that’s just what Louisa May Alcott did, filing the below copyright registration with the clerk of the U.S. Prior to 1870, copyright registration would have been with the local federal District Court. I’m also informed that the Library of Congress has an exhibition of some of the copyright deposits made by Louisa May Alcott, catch it while it’s still up.

I’ll admit I haven’t seen the film yet, but I’m told that it has a great scene about copyright – I’ll have to check it out. It’s also a useful research case study for those interested in using copyright records for historical and literary research. But the story of her copyright is rarely explored beyond that, and I think it’s an interesting one, in that it spans multiple eras of copyright history in a way only a few other works did. With a new movie version coming out, Louisa May Alcott’s novel Little Women is once again in the news, often with some conversation of how Alcott’s publisher urged her to keep the copyright in her work, earning her a fortune. “An honest publisher and a lucky author, for the copyright made her fortune, and the ‘dull book’ was the first golden egg of the ugly duckling.” – Louisa May Alcott, 1885

Little women alcott