Notes on France's
Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard

Info from Barry Neavill:

Modern Library used the Lafcadio Hearn translation of Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard from 1917 through 1931. The spring 1932 edition is in a different translation but the translator is unidentified.

It’s not that there was anything wrong with the old translation; rather, it was a matter of a royalty dispute. The Hearn translation was originally published and copyrighted by Harper & Bros. Modern Library printed from Harper plates and paid Harper royalties of 3 cents a copy, with very strong sales in the years 1925-1931 of over 28,000 copies. Harper transferred a set of plates to the Modern Library for their use. The plates lacked a copyright notice, and Modern Library made them available to the Harlem Book Co. in exchange for a single-volume collection of four France novels. When Harper protested, Cerf paid royalties of 2 cents a copy on the 5,000 copies printed by the Harlem Book Co. Cerf swore that the Modern Library would never use the Hearn translation again.


First copyright page text:      [ none ] (1917)
                                                 New Modern Library Edition 1932

First binding style:                1 (1917)
                                               7 (1932)

First inverse DJ number:     C3 (1917)
                                                200 (1932)

Dates in print:                        1917 - 1931 (Hearn intro & translation)
                                                1932 - 1942 (no intro)

Toledano number:     022.1 (Hearn intro)
                                     022.2 (no intro)


GT42

Confirmed buckram sighting?      yes [1920's]


Introduction:     Lafcadio Hearn (1917 - 1931)

Genre:     Novel

Original language:      French

Translator:     Lafcadio Hearn (1917)
                         Unlisted (1932)


Thanks to the contributors:

Gordon Neavill John Krygier Henry Toledano

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