Jul 20, 2006
Dr. Don Nichol is an English
Professor at Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada. He has
been researching copyright law and its role in the history of
writing and publishing for more than a decade. He is the author of
Pope’s Literary Legacy, published by the Oxford
Bibliographical Society in 1992, and editor, more recently,
of
The New Foundling Hospital for Wit
1768-1773,
a three-volume set containing enhanced facsimiles of some of the
18th-century’s most popular and salacious English
satire.
Nothing too salacious in our conversation, unfortunately, but we do have a rollicking good talk about 18th Century booksellers and authors, the Copyright Act of 1710, copyright libraries, 14 year protection, perpetual monopoly, the famous Alexander Pope and his friend John Gay, Dr. Johnson, and his biographer James Boswell, less famous Andrew Miller, and my new hero, the independent Scottish bookseller/philanthropist Alexander Donaldson, a Warren Buffet of his age.
Periodically you’ll hear what
sounds like an earthquake rumbling in the background…this is
nothing more than a soft Atlantic cross-breeze warfting through
Don’s corner (yes, he’s made it) office in the Arts building where
the interview was conducted.