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the book, and seventeen printing machines besides hand presses.
Already about 150,000 copies of the book are in the hands of the people, and still the returns of sales show no decline.
The story was dramatized in the
United States in August, 1852, without the consent or knowledge of the author, who had neglected to reserve her rights for this purpose.
In September of the same year we find it announced as the attraction at two
London theatres, namely, the
Royal Victoria and the
Great National Standard.
In 1853
Professor Stowe writes:
The drama of “ Uncle Tom” has been going on in the National Theatre of New York all summer with most unparalleled success.
Everybody goes night after night, and nothing can stop it. The enthusiasm beats that of the run in the Boston Museum out and out. The “Tribune” is full of it. The “ Observer,” the “Journal of Commerce,” and all that sort of fellows, are astonished and nonplussed.
They do not know what to say or do about it.
While the
English editions of the story were rapidly multiplying, and being issued with illustrations by
Cruikshank, introductions by
Elihu Burritt, Lord Carlisle, etc., it was also making its way over the Continent.
For the authorized French edition, translated by
Madame Belloc, and published by
Charpentier of
Paris,
Mrs. Stowe wrote the following:--
Preface to the European edition.
In authorizing the circulation of this work on the Continent of
Europe, the author has only this apology, that the love of
man is higher than the love of country.
