But though Dickens may have missed his chance to become a professional actor, he never lost his love of performing. Whether he was organizing amateur theatricals at his parents\u2019 home or giving public readings of passages from his novels, Dickens seemed to always find some way to perform on a stage. It is fitting, then, that one of Dickens\u2019 first published literary works revolves around family theatricals. \u201cMrs. Joseph Porter, \u2018Over the Way\u2019\u201d tells the story of a private play staged by the Gattleton family of Clapham Rise. Witty and satirical, the tale also demonstrates Dickens\u2019 great talent for crafting unforgettable characters. The true stars of the story (though they never once appear on the Gattleton family stage), are the Gattletons\u2019 Uncle Tom and their notorious neighbor, Mrs. Joseph Porter. Uncle Tom, a Shakespeare devotee who has memorized \u201call the principal plays of Shakespeare from beginning to end,\u201d unwittingly plays into Mrs. Porter\u2019s scheme to sabotage the production, leading to disaster for the actors but much hilarity for their audience (and readers).<\/p>\n
\u201cMrs. Joseph Porter, \u2018Over the Way\u2019\u201d first appeared in print in January 1834 in the London Monthly Magazine<\/em>. However, the Rare Book & Manuscript Library\u2019s copy of the tale actually comes from the 26 August 1834 issue of Waldie’s Select Circulating Library<\/em>, printed by Adam Waldie in Philadelphia. It is very likely that this printing is a piracy; due to a lack of any copyright agreement between the United States and Great Britain, American newspapers commonly pirated the works of British authors. In his History of American Magazines<\/em>, Frank Luther Mott describes the situation thusly:<\/p>\n \u201c[Newspaper printers] would have their messengers awaiting the steamships to board them before they docked, and receive the earliest copies of the new English novels; they would then rush the books into type by working large forces of typesetters night and day, and within twenty-four hours would have them on the streets . . . And the purchaser of a G. P. R. James or Dickens novel in eighty closely-printed quarto pages would forget the injury to his eyes in the saving to his pocketbook\u201d (Mott 360).<\/p>\n Dickens spoke about piracy several times during his first visit to the United States in 1842; nevertheless, it was not until 1891, with the passing of the International Copyright Act in the United States, that any provisions existed for the protection of foreign authors’ works.<\/p>\n![\"BegofStory\"](\"http:\/\/wordpress.library.illinois.edu\/rbx\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/52\/2015\/07\/begofstory.gif\")
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