SOURCE: Panofsky, Ruth. “The Publication of Thomas Chandler Haliburton's The Clockmaker, 1st Series.” Canadian Literature, nos. 138/139 (fall/winter 1993): 5-20.

[In the following essay, Panofsky details the publication history of The Clockmaker, focusing on the unauthorized reprintings of the first series in England and America.]

What is known today as Thomas Chandler Haliburton's The Clockmaker series began as a group of sketches entitled “Recollections of Nova Scotia.” This series of twenty-one sketches appeared anonymously in the Novascotian, or Colonial Herald, a weekly newspaper published in Halifax by Joseph Howe. The weekly instalments of “Recollections of Nova Scotia” ran from Wednesday, 23 September 1835 to Thursday, 11 February 1836. The Novascotian was published on Wednesday “for the Country” and on Thursday “for the Town.” Each sketch appeared in both the Wednesday and Thursday printings of the weekly. The sketches in the Novascotian were incorrectly numbered one through ten and twelve through twenty-two: number eleven was omitted from the sequence. This error applied strictly to the numbering of the sketches; it did not indicate the absence of a sketch.

Complete archives of the separate Wednesday and Thursday runs of the Novascotian do not exist in Canada or elsewhere. The excellent holdings at the Public Archives of Nova Scotia and the standard Canadian microfilm copy combine both Wednesday and Thursday printings. There is neither an extant manuscript of the first twenty-one sketches nor of the twelve additional sketches, which were published collectively by Joseph Howe in January 1837, although dated 1836 (Nesbitt 95), as The Clockmaker; or The Sayings and Doings of Samuel Slick, of Slickville. “Recollections of Nova Scotia” represented slightly more than sixty percent (approximately 43,000 words) of the first edition of The Clockmaker (Nesbitt 93).

The only surviving communication between Haliburton and Howe which referred to “Recollections of Nova Scotia” appeared in a letter written on 15 November 1835. Haliburton cautioned Howe: “Mind the spelling of Slicks [sic] nonsense, the dialect is half the wit, the last lost a good deal” (Davies 78). This admonition confirmed Haliburton's authorship as well as his interest in the proper transmission of his sketches to an emerging audience. Quick to realize that Sam Slick's local appeal lay in his Yankee dialect, Haliburton warned his publisher against corrupting the original text. This was the first of such cautionary statements made by Haliburton throughout the publishing history of The Clockmaker series.

In the same letter Haliburton asked to “borrow Jack Downing? for a few days” (Davies 78). Seba Smith's The Life and Writings of Major Jack Downing of Downingville, Away Down East in the State of Maine (Boston: Lilly, Wait, Colman & Holden, 1833) made similar use of Yankee vernacular. Haliburton's request to borrow the book indicated his professional commitment to his craft and his recognition that he was adapting a convention of American writing.

On 17 December 1835, with the appearance of the thirteenth sketch, Howe proclaimed “The Clockmaker … a universal favourite.” He noted the favourable reception of “Recollections of Nova Scotia” in the Province and New England:

Several of these letters have been republished in the Yarmouth Herald, the Boston Courier, and other American and Colonial papers—and we are happy to have it in our power to announce, that there is a goodly supply of Nos. in reserve; and that we shall have the means of keeping our readers merry, not only through the Christmas holidays, but till the very heart of this abominable winter is broken, though the snow should come ten feet deep.

(Novascotian 376)

Howe's comments revealed the early exposure of an American audience to Slick and his antics and foretold the timely appearance of an American edition of The Clockmaker in 1837. It is doubtful whether Haliburton received remuneration for the twenty-one sketches of “Recollections of Nova Scotia” but the character of Sam Slick clearly brought him literary renown. Despite anonymous publication, Haliburton's vital personality and public position as First Justice of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas encouraged recognition of his authorship throughout Nova Scotia.

The twenty-first sketch of “Recollections of Nova Scotia” appeared in the Novascotian for 11 February 1836. The same number included an address to the “Gentle Reader” by the anonymous author of the series:

During four months I have had the honor of presenting you every week with one of these sketches—I now appear before you for the last time, to make my bow and retire. In doing so permit [me] to thank you for the reception you have been pleased to give them; a reception as much above my expectation, as I fear it is beyond my deserts. Mr. Howe informs me it is desirable they should appear in a more durable form … So flattering a request I could not decline; and have therefore placed at his disposal the remaining part of the series, that the whole may be included in one volume.

(41)

Since the focus of this paper is bibliographical rather than editorial, it omits a comparative textual analysis of the twenty-one sketches that appeared first in the Novascotian and later in Howe's edition. Similarly, a textual comparison of sketches in the Novascotian with the same sketches that appeared subsequently in other newspapers, such as the Yarmouth Herald and the Boston Courier, remains outside the scope of this paper. Suffice it to note that Haliburton's revisions to “Recollections of Nova Scotia” included changes in punctuation, spelling, and typography. Textual emendations included additions, deletions, and substitutions. These revisions were evident in the British North American edition of The Clockmaker.

As Bruce Nesbitt suggests, although Howe's first edition was dated 1836 there are reasons to believe that it actually was published in January 1837. First, Sam Slick's letter to Joseph Howe, which prefaced the volume, was dated Pugnose's Inn, River Philip, 25 December 1836. It was highly unlikely that the British North American edition of The Clockmaker was produced within the six remaining days of 1836, the festive period between Christmas and New Year's Day. Second, there was an eleven-month delay between 11 February 1836, the date on which the twenty-first sketch of “Recollections of Nova Scotia” appeared, and 25 December 1836, the date of Slick's letter. The delay was explained, in part, by Haliburton taking time to revise the twenty-one Novascotian sketches prior to book publication. It was, however, the time-consuming task of writing twelve additional sketches which likely accounted for the lengthy hiatus between newspaper and book publication. Despite Haliburton's claim that he had placed “the remaining part of the series” at Howe's disposal, it would seem that the final twelve sketches had not been written and submitted to the publisher by 11 February 1836. And third, Richard Bentley's first British edition was published on 27 March 1837 (Bentley, May 1894). The three months between January and late March 1837 accurately accounted for travel time overseas and the production of a British edition (Nesbitt 95-96).

Hence, most likely in January 1837, under his own imprint, Joseph Howe published the authorized, first and only British North American edition of The Clockmaker, a series of thirty-three sketches that detailed the adventures of Sam Slick of Slickville, a travelling salesman of clocks, whose “wise saws” and “soft sawder” ensured his instant popularity with his readers. The author had chosen to remain anonymous.

George Parker estimates the production run of the first edition of The Clockmaker at 500 to 1,000 copies, “the size of other Howe imprints of the 1830s” (1979, 146). Haliburton did not receive payment in connection with this edition. In the Novascotian of 28 January 1836 he stated: “if there be any little emolument, it belongs of right to him, who has already had the trouble of publishing a great part of them [i.e. ‘Recollections of Nova Scotia’] gratuitously” (31). In the same number of the newspaper, Howe announced that he would publish The Clockmaker “on our own account solely” “in a neat little volume of about 200 pages. Price in boards, 5s” (31).

Although The Clockmaker was British North America's first best-selling work of fiction, Howe later wrote Haliburton the following, dated Halifax, 2 January 1841: “Clockmaker, No. I you gave me, considering it of no value. I published it at my own risk and for my own benefit. It brought you reputation—plate—Books—the means of earning thousands, a handsome sum in subsequent arrangements with Bentley, and it brought me about £35” (Howe, vol. 33).

Howe's edition was published with a single error in pagination. The correction of this error resulted in a second state, also dated 1837. Unfortunately for Howe, his edition was not protected under British or local copyright. The British copyright act of 1710, which required the registration of a title at Stationers' Hall prior to publication of the book itself, did not ensure protection for a colonial publication. Further, Nova Scotia did not pass its own copyright act until 1839. As a result, Howe was without legal recourse against Richard Bentley, whose 1837 British edition of The Clockmaker he viewed as a piracy of his own edition. Howe's precarious position as a colonial publisher of native works became increasingly evident as the complexities of The Clockmaker story unfolded.

Despite a strong desire to foster his Province's cultural awareness and his successful promoting of literature and authors in the pages of the Novascotian, Howe encountered difficulties as a publisher of books. He mismanaged his financial affairs and was a poor negotiator with foreign publishers. Well aware of the contemporary economy of the Province, he nonetheless overestimated the Nova Scotians' interest in books of local concern (Parker 1985, 87). Over time, Haliburton and Howe's relationship became increasingly strained as the author, without consideration for his colonial publisher, encouraged and facilitated foreign publication of his work.

The difficulties between Haliburton and Howe signalled a pattern which characterized the former's publishing career. The relationship between Haliburton and Richard Bentley, his British publisher, was similarly marked by periods of turbulence. Their connection began with Haliburton accusing Bentley of having pirated the British North American edition of The Clockmaker, first series. In fact, the success of The Clockmaker resulted in many unauthorized printings of each series. Increasingly, Haliburton was concerned with securing financial benefit from what he viewed as clear-cut instances of piracy. He was untrusting of publishers who would disregard an author for the sake of profiting by his work. As the surviving correspondence shows, in his relations with publishers, Haliburton was a cautious negotiator who was increasingly motivated by personal ambition.

In early 1837 a copy of Howe's edition of The Clockmaker was brought to Bentley in London by an acquaintance of Haliburton's, Colonel Charles Richard Fox, an officer of His Majesty's forces who, in 1836, was stationed at Halifax and to whom the second series of The Clockmaker was dedicated. Until his relationship with Bentley was firmly established, Haliburton communicated through Fox, his old friend Charles Dickson Archibald, lawyer and businessman, and a recent acquaintance, Egyptologist James Haliburton, who had resumed the use of his full surname after his father had shortened it to Burton.

It was on the recommendation, however, of Richard Harris Barham, literary adviser to the publisher and author of The Ingoldsby Legends or Mirth and Marvels series (London: Richard Bentley, 1840; 1842; 1843), that Bentley published The Clockmaker. On 23 March 1837 Barham urged Bentley to “Lose no time but get it into type at once, if that cant be done immediately, have it transcribed forthwith … Print it at once if possible” (Berg). Four days later, on 27 March, the first British edition was published. It sold for 10s 6d (Bentley, May 1894). Without Haliburton's knowledge, therefore, and within three months of British North American publication, Bentley had brought out an unauthorized edition of The Clockmaker, first series.

Slick's popularity among British readers was soon established. This was confirmed by the timely appearance on 24 June 1837 of Sam Weller; A Journal of Wit and Humour, which falsely named Sam Slick as its editor. Four weekly numbers of Sam Weller were published by W. Strange and printed by Peter Perring Thoms of London.

Volume fourteen of Bentley's Miscellany, dated 1843, included an unsigned article entitled “Notions of Sam Slick.” The article presented Bentley's version of the events which led to the British publication of The Clockmaker:

The first volume was placed in the hands of a London publisher, who, justly conceiving that the sketches, which were allowed to be faithful transcripts of human nature in America, would, as such, be favourably received in England, decided on the experiment of publication. With this view, he made a communication to Mr. Halliburton [sic], who is a British subject, for the purchase of the copyright, which terminated in an arrangement. At the same time, however, being doubtful how far the work might succeed,—for there is a fashion in literature as in everything else,—he brought it out in the least-expensive form, with no flourish of trumpets to herald its publication, or to draw attention to its humour and originality … he work was left to make its own way with the reading community.

(81)

The author of the article referred to the inexpensive binding of the first British edition, which was brown paper boards with a paper label pasted onto the spine.

No arrangement “for the purchase of copyright” was mutually agreed upon by author and publisher. In all likelihood, by the time of British publication, Haliburton and Bentley had not corresponded. This possibility was supported by an inscription on a silver salver which Bentley, at the suggestion of Charles Fox, presented to Haliburton as a gift in lieu of payment for the British edition of The Clockmaker, first series. The salver, which Bentley purchased for £31 14s (Add. ms. 46,676B, f. 26) and sent to Haliburton in late December 1837 (Add. ms. 46,640, f. 183v), was conspicuously misinscribed, “To Thomas D. Halliburton Esq^r The gifted author of The Clockmaker” (Anslow 6).

The correspondence between author and publisher reveals Haliburton as a careful negotiator throughout their professional relationship. Bentley was generally held to be self-motivated in his dealings with authors and Haliburton appears to have kept this knowledge foremost in mind throughout their alliance.

On 18 May 1837 Howe's reaction to the British publication of The Clockmaker appeared in the Novascotian:

The Clockmaker has been republished in London, by Bentley, and is enjoying great popularity, selling freely at 10s. sterling a volume …

Though it is gratifying to us in the extreme, to find any book issuing from The Novascotian Press republished in England, and to hear of the popularity of our friend Slick in the great world of letters, still we are not quite sure tha we shall not bring an action against Mr. Publisher Bentley, for pirating the copyright, and printing an edition without our leave. However, we shall avail ourselves of his exertions, when the Squire has the next volume ready for the Press.

(154)

Contrary to his claim, Howe had not secured the copyright for The Clockmaker, nor was he in any position to take legal action against Bentley.

The issue of piracy, which so consumed Howe and raised his ire, is not of great concern here, for two reasons. First, in the unique case of The Clockmaker, first series, the unauthorized texts are at once important and as bibliographically interesting as the relatively few authorized texts. Throughout this discussion, the use of either piracy or unauthorized is generally avoided and a book is referred to as either an edition, an impression, a reissue, or a variant state. Second, since contemporary copyright law did not protect colonial works, the charge of piracy would be difficult to substantiate, as Howe himself soon had to acknowledge. In fact, the absence of copyright protection reduced the accusation of piracy to little more than a muffled complaint. Hence, this analysis of the publishing history of The Clockmaker, first series treats authorized and unauthorized texts as equal in bibliographical significance.

In the Novascotian for 8 June 1837 Howe noted the success of Bentley's edition of The Clockmaker:

We learn, from letters received by the Packet, that the London edition of this work has had such a run as to make another edition necessary. Should this be the case, it will have run through four editions, in the short space of six months—a degree of popularity rarely attained by any modern work, and we believe never by a Provincial one, having a local application merely. The extensive circulation of this book … cannot fail of being both of essential services to the Province, and the reputation of the author.

(182)

Howe's reference to three existing editions of The Clockmaker was inaccurate. In actual fact, by June of 1837 the British North American edition, a second state, and what ought to be called the first British edition had appeared.

With the exception of one notice, throughout 1837 the Nova Scotia press did not carry independent reviews of The Clockmaker. Rather, the contemporary practice was adopted of citing reviews which first appeared in British publications. On 8 June and 10 August 1837 the Novascotian included excerpts from laudatory reviews in the London Weekly Dispatch for 13 April, the Globe, the True Sun, the Sun, and the Courier. Significantly, the single Nova Scotian reviewer wrote a scathing assessment of The Clockmaker. The wrath of Julian, a possible pseudonym of Alexander Stewart (Chittick 212), was spurred by “reading the puffs of the English press …” Julian condemned The Clockmaker, whose

Author is evidently ignorant of the People whose domestic manners he has attempted to exhibit, and to ridicule, and of much of the country he has chosen for the theatre of his hero's adventures. His local characters are over wrought and false to nature, and the language which they are made to express themselves in, such as is unknown among them.

(Acadian Recorder 10 June 1837)

Howe's response was to call the reviewer “a descendant of Dame Partington's, who tried to sweep back the Atlantic with her broom” (Novascotian 15 June 1837: 190). Julian, however, was the exception rather than the rule. With the stamp of approval from the motherland, Nova Scotians could feel secure in their praise for Haliburton's genius.

Bentley's success with The Clockmaker was a continual source of aggravation to Howe. In a letter written to Bentley, dated 16 October 1837, Howe requested “compensation for the appropriation of my property” and proposed a possible agreement between the two publishers:

… I was preparing to publish an Edition in London or Edinburgh when I found that you had already put the work to press. I presume that this step was taken on your part, without any intention to trespass on my private rights—either under the impression that the Colonies were not protected by the Copyrights Act, or that the work (as was stated in some of the papers) had first appeared in the United States. If I am right in this conjecture I presume that you will see the propriety of making such compensation for the appropriation of my property—the loss and disappointment occasioned—as may be fair and honest under all the circumstances, without putting me to the necessity of seeking redress before the tribunals of our common country … the Clockmaker seems to have secured a singular measure of popularity, and the sales, from the best information I can obtain, have been very large. Under these circumstances a verdict would probably bring with it handsome compensation, but I would prefer an amicable arrangement, dictated by your own sense of justice.

It is probable that another vol. of the Clockmaker will soon be ready for the Press, and in that case, should the affair which forms the subject of this letter be arranged to the satisfaction of all parties, you may become the publisher in England of that also. An early answer will oblige.

(Howe, vol. 32)

Whether Howe received “compensation” from Bentley for the first British edition of The Clockmaker is doubtful. It is evident, however, that by 1838 the two publishers had come to an agreement regarding The Clockmaker, second series. The double imprint on the title page of the first British/British North American edition of The Clockmaker, second series attested to that fact. The imprint read as follows: “London: Richard Bentley, New Burlington Street; and Joseph Howe, Halifax, Nova Scotia.” ([i]) The publication of The Clockmaker, second series is a complex matter that forms the subject of a separate paper.¹

On 27 December 1837 Bentley wrote to Haliburton's friend Charles Archibald in Halifax. In his letter, Bentley suggested that Haliburton write a Clockmaker work in three volumes. Bentley offered £250 for 1,000 copies or £300 for the copyright (Add. ms. 46,640, f. 183v). In a subsequent letter to Haliburton, dated 26 February 1838, Bentley reiterated his offer and proposed an alternative: if he were to provide the publisher with only two volumes, Haliburton would receive £150 for 1,000 copies (Add. ms. 46,640, ff. 190-91v).

On 10 January 1838 Haliburton for the first time corresponded with Bentley directly. Apparently, Haliburton had not yet seen Bentley's letter to Charles Archibald nor had he received the “very elegant piece of plate” (Davies 94) which had been forwarded in late December 1837, “as a token of the estimation in which my talent is held in the motherland” (Davies 94). In hand, however, was a copy of the British edition of The Clockmaker, brought overseas by Archibald. No doubt the edition pleased Haliburton for, in his letter, he offered Bentley The Clockmaker, second series: “I am now writing the 2d. series, would you like to have it if so, and supposing it to be equal to the first, what will you give for it, reserving the right (to republish here)” (Davies 91). Haliburton readily accepted the fact of a British edition and involved himself in the distribution of copies: “I sent a copy to my friend John Stephen Esquire, Craigs Court Charing Cross London, but it was lost at Liverpool, may I beg the favor of you to send him a copy with a note saying it is from the author” (Davies 91). From this early point on, Haliburton encouraged and facilitated British publication of his work.

Nonetheless, he felt he had “reason to complain of … [Bentley's] republishing … [The Clockmaker] without permission, as you cannot but be aware that it is a British work and not an American and therefore private property, under the protection of laws” (Davies 90-91). This was the first and only time that Haliburton objected to the British publication of his work and it was a muted objection at best. With the Bentley edition in his possession, Haliburton could and would do little else than begin to enjoy his notoriety.

On 24 March 1838, in a letter to Supreme Court Judge Robert Parker of New Brunswick, Haliburton noted that his “book has had a prodigious run. In ‘Blackwoods Magazine’ for November [1837], under the title ‘The World We Live In,’ you will see a remarkably flattering notice of it …” (Davies 94). The article in Blackwood's was, in fact, full of praise:

So much for Nova Scotia and its impracticabilities. The writer of the volume is evidently a capital fellow. We want such to throw a new life even into European literature. Our writers are sinking into insipidity … We say, let the writer of Slick's aphorisms try his powers on a subject adequate to their capacity. Let him leave Nova Scotia and come to England. Caricature of the most cauterizing kind never had ampler opportunities than in the public life of our parties. Let him take in hand the sullen vulgarity of our ambitious rabble of legislative tinkers … The fund would be inexhaustible, the impulse manly, and the service beyond all praise.

(677)

It was no surprise that Haliburton would take pleasure in this review of The Clockmaker. To have his talents praised as worthy of British subject matter was the highest commendation he could hope for. In fact, in his letter to Judge Parker, Haliburton had declared his intention “to go home” with the manuscript of The Clockmaker, second series and to “see it through the press myself” (Davies 94). The Judge would have liked nothing better than to leave Nova Scotia for England, where his true sympathies lay. On 25 November 1839 he wrote the following to Bentley: “I have nothing and see nothing in this damned country, this ‘dead sea’, would to God I could live in dear old England, which is the only country this side of paradise worth living in” (Davies 109). Haliburton was obliged, however, to wait eighteen years before he could remove to England permanently.

Haliburton, Howe, and Bentley met in Britain in June 1838, during Queen Victoria's coronation celebrations. Whether the two publishers had communicated between 16 October 1837, the date of Howe's letter to Bentley, and June 1838, the date of their subsequent meeting in England, is doubtful. By then, Haliburton had agreed to publish the second series of The Clockmaker with Bentley. Relations between Howe and Bentley grew increasingly strained. Howe rightly felt that he was the only party to suffer as a result of the British publication of The Clockmaker, first series. While Haliburton acquired a reputation abroad as well as at home, and Bentley profited by the venture, Howe lost sales as well as Haliburton's loyalty. In a letter written to Haliburton, dated Halifax, 25 December 1840, Howe revealed that Bentley had tried his patience: “… with regard to Bentley, he has treated me so ill, that I shall certainly never write him again, except to draw on him for some 20 Sovereigns he owes me” (Howe, vol. 33).

The British North American edition was eclipsed by the British books which were soon widely available. For example, bookseller Clement Horton Belcher's advertisement in the Novascotian, dated 30 May 1839, announced: “Sam Slick's Works. Received by the Queen from London,—The Clockmaker, First and Second Series, 2 vols. illustrated” (6 June 1839: 184). By 1838 Bentley was producing elegant books. Abandoning “the least-expensive form” (Notions 81) of the first British edition, his books were now printed on quality paper, attractively and sturdily bound in purple vertically ribbed cloth which soon became their signature in Britain. Despite Haliburton's complaint on 20 February 1849 that “the English books have been so expensive” (Davies 148), he evidently favoured British over colonial and American publication.

Publication by Bentley held obvious advantages for Haliburton. As Parker notes, Bentley gave Haliburton welcome press in his Miscellany; reviews of Haliburton's work in the Athenaeum, Blackwood's Magazine, and the Times, which encouraged international notice, were arranged by Bentley; Haliburton met other well-known, literary persons through his association with Bentley; and finally, the British books were far more attractive than those produced in either Halifax, Philadelphia, Boston, or New York (1985, 89-90).

Although Slick's dialect was generally viewed as “uncouth—so barbarous—so full of transatlantic slang—as in many instances to be wholly unintelligible” (Sun), The Clockmaker was well received in Britain. The Spectator praised it as “a decidedly clever book” (306). The Athenaeum noted the “very considerable humour running through the pages, and … [its] strong under-current of good sense” (262). And the Globe called it “one of those genuinely original works, which carry their own letter of recommendation, and are every where relished, in spite—or perhaps in consequence—of the differences of natural manners, which cast so strange a colouring over the matters conveyed.” The Times, however, best represented the British response to The Clockmaker: Haliburton's sketches were “fruitful in wholesome laughter” and “Mr. Slick is a very well-meaning fellow, if we make allowance for a certain irresistible, we must not say national, temptation to overreach in a bargain … [He] exhibits a very vigorous understanding, except where his nationality sets him vain-boasting” (3).

A second edition; first, second, and third reissues; and a third edition of The Clockmaker, first series appeared in 1838. A reissue of the third edition was brought out in 1840. Each book sold for 10s 6d. The first reissue of the second edition appeared on 26 October 1838. The third edition, dated 1839, actually was published on 8 December 1838 (Bentley, July 1894). Bentley's imprint appeared on each of these books.

The first reissue of the second edition included four etchings by Auguste Hervieu, for which he received £28 remuneration (Add. ms. 46,612, ff. 280-83). The reissue included a notice from the publisher, dated 24 October 1838, which informed “the Purchasers of the previous Editions of The Clockmaker … that they can be supplied with the Illustrations, now published, at the Price of One Shilling and Sixpence for each Series [i.e. first and second series], on application to their respective Booksellers.” Not all subsequent Bentley books included the four etchings by Hervieu. Only the first and third reissues of the second edition, the third edition of 1838, and the reissue of 1840 included the etchings.

Bentley used three printers to produce The Clockmaker, first series. He began with Thomas Curson Hansard, who printed Britain's Parliamentary Debates. Later he used the printing houses of his brother, Samuel Bentley, and of Adolphe Schulze and Company.

Curious changes were evident in the Bentley books, the most obvious of which was the progressive anglicizing of the text. Haliburton often regretted “the errors of the London press which are most numerous” (Davies 149). In a letter to Bentley, dated 1 September 1840, he complained that “Every succeding [sic] edition of Slick has been more anglicised [sic] than the last—Pray have pains taken in this particular” (Davies 119-20). Examples of such tinkering with the text was the substitution of the word “feller” for “fellow,” “larfter” for “lafter,” and “swallers” for “swallows.” Ostensibly, such changes were made in the hopes of pleasing the ear of an uninitiated readership, which was doubly removed from the character of Slick. Slick's Yankee speech increasingly became the hybrid product of a British North American author and a British publisher.

Unfortunately for Joseph Howe, publication of The Clockmaker outside of Nova Scotia was not restricted to Richard Bentley. In November 1837 the first, unauthorized American edition of The Clockmaker, first series was published by Carey, Lea & Blanchard of Philadelphia, “the first modern American publishing company” (Shuffelton 72). The edition was bound inexpensively in blue paper boards with a paper label pasted onto the spine. Since they share textual similarities that were not reflected in Howe's edition, I support Nesbitt's claim that the first British edition was the source of the first American edition (100). Unlike Bentley, American publishers did not manipulate a text which already appealed to a vast readership in the United States. One thousand copies of the first edition cost ＄464.96 US to produce (Kaser 231). In December of the same year Carey, Lea & Blanchard reissued 2,000 copies at a production cost of ＄706.00 US (Kaser 232).

No record of Howe's response to the American piracy of The Clockmaker exists. In fact, he was without legal recourse against the Philadelphia publisher, just as he had been vulnerable to Bentley seven months earlier. The American copyright act of 1790 provided that nothing would prohibit publication within the United States of any book written, printed, or published by a person who was not an American citizen, outside of the jurisdiction of the United States. As a colonial publisher of native works, Howe was defenseless against both British and American publishers who appropriated colonial material for their own use. There was no law in British North America, Britain, or the United States to bar such appropriation. Howe negotiated with the Philadelphia firm the terms of publication for the subsequent series of The Clockmaker while Bentley's reaction to American publication remains unknown.

The earliest surviving letter written by Haliburton to Messrs. Lea & Blanchard was dated 18 May 1843 and concerned his later work, The Attaché; or Sam Slick in England, first series (London: Richard Bentley, 1843). The familiar tone of the letter suggested that Haliburton and the American publisher corresponded prior to this late date. In fact, as early as 8 July 1838 Haliburton requested that a copy of The Clockmaker, second series be sent to “Carey and Lee [sic] [formerly Carey, Lea & Blanchard] of Philadelphia, the copies sent to me for that purpose being too inaccurate for any reprint whatever” (Davies 99). And in December of that year Haliburton asked Bentley what he thought of the “almighty superfine everlasting partikilar damned rascals Carey & Lea?” (Davies 102). Whether Haliburton and the American publishing firm communicated before publication of their first edition is doubtful. What was likely, however, was that Haliburton welcomed and later facilitated American publication of his work, as he had done several months earlier with British publication. The numerous impressions which followed the first edition attested to the favourable reception in the United States of Sam Slick and his adventures.

A second American edition appeared in 1838; a first reissue and another impression in 1839; a second reissue in 1840; and a third reissue of The Clockmaker, first series in 1841. Carey, Lea & Blanchard's imprint appeared on each of these books. Haswell, Barrington & Haswell printed the first edition. The reissue of 1837 lacked a printer's imprint. Subsequent books were printed by T. K. & P. G. Collins and the plates were stereotyped by J. Fagan, all three of Philadelphia.

A fourth reissue of the second Carey, Lea & Blanchard edition of The Clockmaker was brought out in 1843 by Burgess & Stringer of New York. It sold for 18 and three-quarter cents US. In all likelihood, Burgess & Stringer purchased Carey, Lea & Blanchard's stereotype plates, for they used the plates to produce their reissue.

As early as 1838 Benjamin B. Mussey, “an obscure Boston publisher” (Dzwonkoski 324), brought out what should be designated as the fourth American edition of The Clockmaker, first series. Mussey's books constituted the second line of American piracies, published coincidentally with the Carey, Lea & Blanchard books. Between 1838 and 1839 the Mussey edition was reissued four times. Mussey's imprint changed from Benjamin B. Mussey, to William White & Benjamin B. Mussey, to Israel S. Boyd & Benjamin B. Mussey. Both White and Boyd published out of Concord, New Hampshire. Mussey's books were printed at the Concord Stereotype Foundry.

The publishing history of The Clockmaker, first series, as outlined here, situated Haliburton and his work within an international context. It is within this context that Haliburton's significant contribution to Canadian letters must be considered. In 1837 Haliburton's popularity resulted in the publication of three first editions of The Clockmaker, in British North America, Britain, and the United States. Rarely has a Canadian author enjoyed a similar success. Canadian writers have often lamented their small native audience and, not until recently (with a few exceptions like Ralph Connor, Gilbert Parker, Stephen Leacock, and Lucy Maud Montgomery), have they acquired a readership outside the country. Writing in the early nineteenth century, Haliburton did not encounter such obstacles to success. In 1835 “Recollections of Nova Scotia” established his audience and popularity in his native Province, and in 1837 The Clockmaker, first series ensured his unprecedented international appeal.

Notes

1. See Ruth Panofsky, “The Publication of Thomas Chandler Haliburton's The Clockmaker, 2nd Series,” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada 30.2 (Fall 1992): 21-37.

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