The Impact of Bernhard Tauchnitzs Book Series “Collection of British and American Authors” on the Continent and Beyond

Abstract

In 1837, when Christian Bernhard Tauchnitz was just 20 years old, he founded his printing and publishing house in Leipzig. Just a few years later the young entrepreneur started publishing and selling the works of English authors – male and female – in the series Collection of British Authors, which he launched in 1842 with Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton s Pelham; or, The Adventures of a Gentleman. Until his death in 1895 more than three thousand volumes, some of which went through several editions, came onto the continental market (they were only allowed to be sold on the continent). In Bernhard Tauchnitz s life-time almost all known authors, as well as authors who are less well known today, entrusted their works to the publisher, including Dickens, George Eliot, Thackeray, Bulwer Lytton, Thomas Hardy and many more. That Bernhard Tauchnitz was always a little ahead of his time is reflected in his innovative publishing concept. In 1843 during a stay in London he sent a circular letter to English authors presenting them with the following offer which – due to the country s virtually non-existent copyright situation – met with general agreement: