This book describes the efforts made between 1815 and 1854 to secure an Anglo-American copyright agreement and indicates the factors that caused such efforts to fail. The book reports the effects that the lack of a copyright agreement had on overall Anglo-American relations and on British and American writers and publishers. Chapters provide discussion of the Depression of 1837-1843 and its implications for the American book trade, British periodicals in America, efforts to influence the United States Congress and the British Parliament, the impact of foreign reprints on the domestic British book trade, the Canadian book market, actions of the British law courts as an alternative to copyright laws, American lobbyists in the early 1850s, bribery as a necessary expense for congressional action on copyright law, and the need for Senate ratification of a specific copyright treaty. (RL)