5

TEXTUAL AFTERWORD

489

Neither development occurred by 11 November, when Betts acknowledged
receipt from Douglass of what may have been a last batch of proof or the manuscript
for eight paragraphs that would be added to the West Indian Emancipation section
in the second printing;⁷ thus the way in which Douglass had ended Life and Times in
his original manuscript differed dramatically from pages 483–516 in the volume that
emerged from the bindery for copyright deposit at the Library of Congress on 23
November 1881.⁸

At least once before publication, in a single extant letter, Douglass revealed that
he was not always so cooperative when dealing with the man in whose professionalism
he had placed his trust only to rue the day that he had done so. Almost a month before
its formal publication, upon receipt of some form of an advance copy of the book,
Douglass was not pleased. He would not directly address what he thought of how the
text of his narrative had been handled until he wrote Betts on 28 January 1882 and
complained about what he termed typographical errors. Douglass may have had in
mind such flaws when, on 30 October 1881, he charged Betts with having "marred and
spoiled my work entirely."⁹ But the focus of this letter was the illustrations, for which
Betts had had plates made without his approval. Apparently this was not the first
occasion of disagreement on the subject, for Douglass declared that he was "no more
reconciled than ever to the publication of my life with illustrations, and I ask and
insist, as I have a right to do, that an edition of the book shall be published without
illustrations, for Northern circulation." He testily reminded Betts that their contract
ohliged the Park Publishing Company only to print on "good white paper" and to
include a steel engraving of the author. It did not grant license "to load the book with
all manner of coarse and shocking wood cuts, such as may be found in [the] news
papers of the day." Douglass closed his 30 October letter by threatening Betts with
"an injunction against your publishing the book in its present shape."¹⁰

Published it was, but this broadside had a measurable effect. Since the
illustration leaves tipped into copies of the first two printings of the first American
edition did not count in the pagination, the publisher could easily omit them. It seems
that even some copies of these printings did not contain them, for a representative of
the firm informed Douglass on 3 April 1882 that there were "four copies left of the
edition without illustrations" and asked him whether he could "see fit to take them
off our hands."¹¹

7. Park Publishing Company to Douglass, 11 November 1881, General Correspondence File, reel
3, frame 525, FD Papers, DLC. This letter also acknowledged "copy you sent" but gave no indication of
its nature.

8. Park Publishing Company registered the title for copyright on 3 September 1881 and made its
deposit of two copies of Life and Times at the Library of Congress on 23 November 1881; Legal File, reel
30, frame 291, FD Papers, DLC. Copyright Registration Record No. 13.325-M, Copyright Office, DLC

9. Douglass to Sylvester M. Betts, 30 October 1881. General Correspondence File, reel 3, frame
520, FD Papers, DLC.

10. Ibid.

11. Park Publishing Company to Douglass, 3 April 1882, General Correspondence File, reel 3,