[The Copyright Contract]

On April 28, 1836, he made a contract with Truman & Smith, publishers of Cincinnati, for the preparation and publication of a graded series of readers to consist of four books.  The First and Second readers were then in manuscript, the Third and Fourth readers were to be completed within eighteen months.  They were both issued in 1837.  Dr. Benjamin Chidlaw, then a student in college, aided the author by copying the indicated selections and preparing them for the printer.  He received for this work five dollars and thought himself well paid.

These four books constituted the original series of the Eclectic Readers by W.H.  McGuffey which in all the subsequent revisions have borne his name and retained the impress of his mind.

The First Reader made a thin 18mo book of seventy-two pages, having green paper covered sides; the Second Reader contained one hundred and sixty-four pages of the same size.  The Third Reader had a larger page and was printed as a duodecimo of one hundred and sixty-five pages.  The fourth Reader ranked in size with the Third and contained three hundred and twenty-four printed pages.  Each was printed from the type, which was distributed when the required number for the edition came from the press.

By the terms of the contract the publishers paid a royalty of ten per cent on all copies sold until the copyright should reach the sum of one thousand dollars, after which the Readers became the absolute property of the publishers.  It must be remembered that in those days this sum of money seemed much larger than it would at the present time, and it may be questioned whether this newly organized firm of publishers commanded as much as a thousand dollars in their entire business.  At any rate the contract was mutually satisfactory and remained so to the end of the author’s life.  Right here it seems proper to remark that although the McGuffey readers became the property of the publishers when the royalties reached one thousand dollars.  Dr. McGuffey was employed by the publishers in connection with important revisions so long as he lived and the contracts specify a “satisfactory consideration” in each case.

[Later Contracts]

When, after the Civil War, these readers attained a sale which became very profitable to the firm then owning the copyrights, the partners, without suggestion or solicitation, fixed upon an annuity which was paid Dr. McGuffey each year so long as he lived.  This was a voluntary recognition of their esteem for the man and of the continued value of his work.

[The Beecher Family]