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II
Thomas Hardy.
In its issue of July 9, 1892, The Critic had begun its review of Tess of the D'Urbervilles by noting that the American edition lacked Hardy's preface (pp. 13-14). Hardy responded with a letter in the issue of September 10, 1892 (21: 134):
Max Gate, Dorchester, Aug. 26th, 1892.
To the Editors of The Critic:—
A complaint has reached me from your pages to the effect that even in the revised and enlarged American edition of "Tess of the D'Urbervilles' I have thought fit to suppress the explanatory preface which appears in all the English editions.
I find it to be quite true that the preface is omitted; but you will perhaps allow me to assure your readers that such omission was not intentional on my part, but arose from circumstances of publication over which I had no control at the time.
I am now taking measures to attach to the American edition both the original preface and a new preface which is in preparation for the fifth English edition.
I may add in this connection that the necessity for (at least) simultaneous publication in America of English books, to secure copyright, renders it almost impossible that the latest addenda of an author should be incorporated in the foreign imprint. Could even a fortnight's grace be allowed, final touches, given just before going to press on this side, would not be excluded from American copies as they now are in so many cases.
Yours faithfully,
Thomas Hardy.
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