William Eng
March 11th, 2008, 08:44 AM
The author of this classic, Edwin LeFevre, never thought his name would be associated with a legendary trader, Jesse Livermore, when he wrote "Reminscences of a Stock Operator." In fact, the book was never originally written as a book, but was a compilation of 12 articles LeFevre wrote for the Saturday Evening Post from 1922 to 1923. The book was published in 1923.
The publishing and republishing of "Reminscences" itself has had an interesting past. The most recent republisher of this classic is John Wiley & Sons. This thread is an inside story as to how it came about that the publishing industry's most recognized authority of technical and scientific tomes got around to publishing a book that was out of "copyright" protection.
This story starts in the early 1990's. Chris Myers, the owner of www.TradersLibrary.com (http://www.TradersLibrary.com) and I befriended each other in the late 1980's. Chris, a former seminarian back in his college days, was starting out in the direct mail order business when I met him. He had worked as an IBM salesman before I met him so he was well versed in qualifying prospective buyers of his wares. My first book, "The Technical Analysis of Stocks, Options, and Futures," was published in 1986. Chris was impressed with the work. It was in the 1993 that Chris and I worked together in marketing a seminar we held in LaJolla, California. By that time, several of my other books had been published and I was a known entity in the world of market analysis.
The seller of market books prior to Chris Myers getting involved is www.TradersPress.com (http://www.TradersPress.com), owned and operated by Edward Dobson. Ed started his operation in 1975, many years before Chris started his Trader's Library. Ed had written a book in 1979, "Trading Rule That Can Make You Rich: Precision Bid Commodity Trading." Ed was a stockbroker and ventured into the side business of selling market books. Over the years Ed found his bookselling business to be a lucrative business, just as Chris discovered that selling market books was going to be his mark on the world.
(There were several other minor sellers of market related books around this time period. Fraser Publishing, of Burlington, Vermont, made a sideline business republishing out-of-print books on the markets. It was owned by James Fraser. On the west coast, the needs of traders-searching-for-knowledge was served by Donald Mack with his highly specialized Investment Centre, formerly located at 2124 S.Sepulveda Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA. I'll relate more of my contacts with these fine gentlemen in other posts.)
Chris and I were talking on the phone one day and he told me he was going to republish "Reminscences of a Stock Operator." I remarked that it would be foolish of him to do so since the copyright protection had ended. Also, Fraser Publishing and Trader's Press had their own version of the classic. It was out of copyright protection and there were already two publishers of the public domain book.
To my objections, Chris told me, " ... but Bill, I have the copyright to 'Reminscences of a Stock Operator.' I own the copyright, Bill, and I'm even negotiating to have a film produced." John Wiley & Sons was going to be the publisher who would republish it. Dumbfounded, I asked him how these events came to be.
Chris told me he was at his son's baseball game. He sat among the other parents. Sitting next to Chris was another parent who started chatting with Chris. The othe parent was, lucky break, a copyright and patent lawyer. Chris bemoaned the fact that he wanted to get into publishing financial and investment books and his first book would be a book that was out of copyright protection. This book was the classic, "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator," written by Edwin LeFevre and copyrighted in 1923. It was out of copyright protection and it was being reprinted by Fraser Publishing on the east coast and Trader's Press in South Carolina. Between the two of these companies, there wasn't any reason to crowd the market by becoming a third republisher of the classic.
The lawyer told Chris to call his office during the week. The week came and Chris contacted the lawyer. The lawyer said to Chris that his research showed the book was still under copyright protection. Puzzled, Chris asked how that could be since the copyright laws protected authors' rights for 50 years, and the book's copyright had already expired. The lawyer said there was a revision to the copyright law in the 1970's that extended the life of the copyright to additional years. Hardly anyone knew about that since it was really imbedded in the halls of copyright nuances. The book was still under copyright protection!
Chris set about trying to find who the heirs to the estate of Edwin LeFevre were and where they could be contacted. The heirs were the obvious owners of the copyright. He looked up the city where Edwin LeFevre had lived and died. He scoured the White Pages (back then there were Yellow Pages and White Pages directories for those of you too young to know about these matters) and found one LeFevre listed in the telephone book. Chris made phone calls and found the heir to Edwin LeFevre's estate. He then set about negotiating a republishing contract with him.
Then Chris set about getting John Wiley & Sons to republish the book, under full copyright protection for about an additional seven years (from my fuzzy memory). Then Wiley & Sons contacted Fraser Publishing and Trader's Press to cease and desist. After a bit of haggling they both stopped publishing the classic.
Chris and Wiley enjoyed several years of republishing the classic and made a few sheckles. And that, dear readers, is how it came about that the venerable publishing company, Wiley, came to publish a book that had lost copyright "protection."
(To view the photos, readers must be registered with www.TradingRules.com (http://www.tradingrules.com/). Casual visitors to this site are not allowed the privilege of viewing this information. The files that are available for downloading are also for registered users.)
The publishing and republishing of "Reminscences" itself has had an interesting past. The most recent republisher of this classic is John Wiley & Sons. This thread is an inside story as to how it came about that the publishing industry's most recognized authority of technical and scientific tomes got around to publishing a book that was out of "copyright" protection.
This story starts in the early 1990's. Chris Myers, the owner of www.TradersLibrary.com (http://www.TradersLibrary.com) and I befriended each other in the late 1980's. Chris, a former seminarian back in his college days, was starting out in the direct mail order business when I met him. He had worked as an IBM salesman before I met him so he was well versed in qualifying prospective buyers of his wares. My first book, "The Technical Analysis of Stocks, Options, and Futures," was published in 1986. Chris was impressed with the work. It was in the 1993 that Chris and I worked together in marketing a seminar we held in LaJolla, California. By that time, several of my other books had been published and I was a known entity in the world of market analysis.
The seller of market books prior to Chris Myers getting involved is www.TradersPress.com (http://www.TradersPress.com), owned and operated by Edward Dobson. Ed started his operation in 1975, many years before Chris started his Trader's Library. Ed had written a book in 1979, "Trading Rule That Can Make You Rich: Precision Bid Commodity Trading." Ed was a stockbroker and ventured into the side business of selling market books. Over the years Ed found his bookselling business to be a lucrative business, just as Chris discovered that selling market books was going to be his mark on the world.
(There were several other minor sellers of market related books around this time period. Fraser Publishing, of Burlington, Vermont, made a sideline business republishing out-of-print books on the markets. It was owned by James Fraser. On the west coast, the needs of traders-searching-for-knowledge was served by Donald Mack with his highly specialized Investment Centre, formerly located at 2124 S.Sepulveda Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA. I'll relate more of my contacts with these fine gentlemen in other posts.)
Chris and I were talking on the phone one day and he told me he was going to republish "Reminscences of a Stock Operator." I remarked that it would be foolish of him to do so since the copyright protection had ended. Also, Fraser Publishing and Trader's Press had their own version of the classic. It was out of copyright protection and there were already two publishers of the public domain book.
To my objections, Chris told me, " ... but Bill, I have the copyright to 'Reminscences of a Stock Operator.' I own the copyright, Bill, and I'm even negotiating to have a film produced." John Wiley & Sons was going to be the publisher who would republish it. Dumbfounded, I asked him how these events came to be.
Chris told me he was at his son's baseball game. He sat among the other parents. Sitting next to Chris was another parent who started chatting with Chris. The othe parent was, lucky break, a copyright and patent lawyer. Chris bemoaned the fact that he wanted to get into publishing financial and investment books and his first book would be a book that was out of copyright protection. This book was the classic, "Reminiscences of a Stock Operator," written by Edwin LeFevre and copyrighted in 1923. It was out of copyright protection and it was being reprinted by Fraser Publishing on the east coast and Trader's Press in South Carolina. Between the two of these companies, there wasn't any reason to crowd the market by becoming a third republisher of the classic.
The lawyer told Chris to call his office during the week. The week came and Chris contacted the lawyer. The lawyer said to Chris that his research showed the book was still under copyright protection. Puzzled, Chris asked how that could be since the copyright laws protected authors' rights for 50 years, and the book's copyright had already expired. The lawyer said there was a revision to the copyright law in the 1970's that extended the life of the copyright to additional years. Hardly anyone knew about that since it was really imbedded in the halls of copyright nuances. The book was still under copyright protection!
Chris set about trying to find who the heirs to the estate of Edwin LeFevre were and where they could be contacted. The heirs were the obvious owners of the copyright. He looked up the city where Edwin LeFevre had lived and died. He scoured the White Pages (back then there were Yellow Pages and White Pages directories for those of you too young to know about these matters) and found one LeFevre listed in the telephone book. Chris made phone calls and found the heir to Edwin LeFevre's estate. He then set about negotiating a republishing contract with him.
Then Chris set about getting John Wiley & Sons to republish the book, under full copyright protection for about an additional seven years (from my fuzzy memory). Then Wiley & Sons contacted Fraser Publishing and Trader's Press to cease and desist. After a bit of haggling they both stopped publishing the classic.
Chris and Wiley enjoyed several years of republishing the classic and made a few sheckles. And that, dear readers, is how it came about that the venerable publishing company, Wiley, came to publish a book that had lost copyright "protection."
(To view the photos, readers must be registered with www.TradingRules.com (http://www.tradingrules.com/). Casual visitors to this site are not allowed the privilege of viewing this information. The files that are available for downloading are also for registered users.)