College and Research Libraries


BOOK REVIEWS 
Book Pirating in Taiwan. By David Kaser. 

Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania 
Press, 1969. ix, 154p. $6.50. ( 69-12289'). 

Perhaps any reference to piracy whets 
the reading appetite; in any case, David 
Kaser's book presents a suspenseful ac-
count of a bedeviling situation in the book 
publishing world. The book has much to 
offer for serious thought; it happens also 
to be entertaining, a quality that never 
prejudices a judgment. 

The chapter headings are tempting. 
Witness a few: "Through Tara's Halls: 
The Beginnings of Copyright"; "A Lick and 
a Promise: First Attempts at Resolution"; 
"The Carrot and the Stick: Reactions on 
Taiwan"; "And Never the Twain . . . : 
Negotiations Flounder"; "Hope Springs 
Eternal . . . : New Efforts to Bargain"; 
"Dashed Hopes and Greater Chaos: The 
Situation Worsens" ; and "This Point 
Whither: The Present Scene and Current 
Trends." 

The Irish reference recalls the sixth 
century decision of King Diarmuid against 
St. Columba who, without permission, had 
copied a psalter. "To every cow her calf; 
therefore to every book its copy." The 
tangled webs resulting from that decision 
have stretched and strengthened through 
the years and Kaser writes a short, in-
formative background to the understand-
ing of his present concern . He does not 
overlook the struggles of noted English 
writers with the vagaries of nineteenth 
century reprinting in the United States. 

The reader is equally well served by a 
brief description of the status of literary 
property in the East. Since the American 
copyright laws had become fairly stable, 
American publishers found it most un-
pleasant to be confronted with dwindling 
sales and a dictum agreed to by China 
and the United States in 1903: "It is un-

58/ 

Recent Publications 
derstood that Chinese subjects shall be at 
liberty to make, print and sell original 
translations into Chinese of any works 
written or of maps compiled by a citizen 
of the United States." During the 1950s it 
became apparent that far more than trans-
lations into Chinese were being printed; 
furthermore, the books were being pub-
lished not only for students in Taiwan but 
for other centers like Hong Kong and 
Macao, and finally for sale in the States. 

There follows a detailed account of the 
frustrating efforts of American publishers 
to come to terms with this flagrant piracy. 
Misunderstandings on a colossal scale 
complicated the paths of decency and 
fairness. "Almost all of the Taiwan reprint-
ers had done exactly what good business-
men have always done everywhere-they 
operated their activities to the limit of the 
law in the interest of profits and what they 
felt to be the public good." The ever-in-
creasing hordes of students needed books; 
book prices were high; reprinting seemed 
to be as kindly as it was unauthorized. 

Kaser clarifies the maze of negotiation, 
compromise, and self-interest with a nar-
rative style that untangles and delights. 
He concludes on a note of subdued opti-
mism, having told a good yarn while in-
creasing the reader's awareness of an im-
portant facet of the world's book trade. A 
satisfying index guarantees the book's use-
fulness to future students of copyright. 
The same index comes in handy for more 
casual readers; it helps them keep track of 
the names and numbers of the players.-
Philip ]. McNiff, Boston Public Library. 

The Library of The College of William 
and Mary in Virginia, 1693-1793. By 
John M. Jennings. Charlottesville: The 
University Press of Virginia, 1968. xvi, 
91 (1) p. $5.00. (68-59130). 

Much of the intellectual history of co-
lonial America has gone up in smoke-
literally. One need only recall the fire 



which destroyed the first and largest li-
brary of the early days-the Harvard con-
flagration of 1764, and the two devastat-
ing holocausts which literally wiped out 
the Library of Congress in 1814 and deci-
mated it in 1851. Somehow-and it cannot 
all be blamed on Sherman-the South suf-
fered book losses to a greater extent than 
the North. The library of the College of 
William and Mary burned in 1705, 1859, 
and 1862. · 

It is remarkable that Mr. Jennings has 
been able to salvage so much history from 
the ashes which destroyed both books and 
the records of them. Of the first collection 
but a single volume, Paolo Sarpi' s History 
of the Council of Trent, has survived. 
However, there is a manuscript list of the 
substantial nucleus of that collection, the 
158 works given the college in 1698 by 
Governor Francis Nicholson. From the ti-
tles cited (one wishes the list had been 
printed in full in an appendix), the choice 
seerris to have been in scope, size, and 
contents as theologically Anglican (with a 
sprinkling of books on history, travel, sci-
ence, and literature) as the collections 
sent at the same time to Boston, New 
York, and Philadelphia by Dr. Thomas 
Bray. William and Mary also received a 
shipment from the book-dispensing Bray, 
but what those works were we do not 
know. 

Growth after the fire of 1705 seems to 
have been slow. Books were begged for in 
England, bought in London by John Ran-
dolph with money from the Brafferton 
fund, and supplied after 1734 by grants 
from the General Assembly from liquor 
import duties-an unusually advanced 
form of subsidy. Gifts and bequests , nota-
bly that of President James Blair, added 
to the college's store. A few volumes and a 
few titles mentioned in documents and 
letters are the tantalizingly scanty indica-
tions of what the library may have con-
tained. One visible tip of the iceberg is 
the inventory of scientific works purchased 
from the estate of the Rev. James Hor-
rocks in 1772. During 1781 the academic 
book resources suffered a loss when the 
college buildings were occupied by Brit-
ish, French and American troops at differ-
ent times during the Yorktown campaign. 

Recent Publications I 59 

It is curious that the only record of the li-
brary's size at this time-3,000 volumes-
comes from the recollections of a Revolu-
tionary soldier. With the addition of a gift 
from Louis XVI, similar no doubt to that 
given at the same time to the University of 
Pennsylvania, the Library of the College 
of William and Mary at the end of a hun-
dred years of existence is estimated by 
Mr. Jennings to have consisted of 4,000 
volumes. 

The library historian will find this ac-
count of the struggles to build a collection 
of books for an academic institution 
strangely modern in tone. There were pe-
riods of academic dedication which result-
ed in gifts and governmental support. 
There was unforeseen loss through fire. 
There were major windfalls of money and 
books. There were periods of relaxation, 
which in libraries amounts to retrogres-
sion. Yet basically Mr. Jennings' chronicle . 
is one of bookmen trying to convince non-
bookmen of the importance of books, with 
good to moderate success. Alas, we learn 
more about the tree than the fruit. The 
records of the books are lacking. Mr. J en-
nings cannot be faulted. He has written 
everything that can be written about the 
first hundred years of the Library of the 
College of William and Mary.-Edwin 
Wolf 2nd, Library Company of Philadel-
phia. •• 

BOOKS RECEIVED 
NoTE: The titles listed represent books re-
ceived at the editorial office that may be of 
interest to academic librarians. 

Akers, Susan Grey. Simple Library Cata-
loging. 5th ed. Metuchen, N.J.: The 
Scarecrow Press, 1969. 345p. 

Bekker, Nielsen Hans, ed. Bibliography of 
Old Norse-Icelandic Stu.dies 1968. Copen-
hagen: Munksgaard, 1969. 95p. 30 Da-
nish Kr. 

Brunn, Alice L. How to Find Out in Phar-
macy. A Guide to Sources of Pharma-
ceutical Information. London: Pergamon 
Press, 1969. 130p. $4.75/hd, $3.00/ flexi-
cover. (Commonwealth & International 
Library of Science Technology Engineer-
ing & Liberal Studies.) 

Crowley, Edward L., et al., eds. Party and