Bela Marsh (1797-1869) was a publisher and bookseller in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 19th century.[1] Authors under his imprint included Spiritualists[2] and abolitionists[3][4] such as John Stowell Adams, Adin Ballou, Warren Chase, Lysander Spooner, and Henry Clarke Wright. Marsh kept offices on Washington Street (ca.1820-1832),[5] Cornhill (ca.1847-1852),[6] Franklin Street (ca.1854-1856),[7] and Bromfield Street (ca.1858-1868).[8]
Among his business partners were Nahum Capen, Gardner P. Lyon, T.H. Webb, and George W. Williams.[9] He belonged to the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association and the Physiological Society.[10]
Marsh was the defendant in the seminal copyright case, Folsom v. Marsh (C.C.D. Mass. 1841), for publishing a two-volume abridgment of George Washington's letters, where the Justice Joseph Story found he had infringed the copyright in the 12-volume set of the same edited by Jared Sparks.[citation needed]
References
edit- ^ Annals of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association, 1795-1892. Press of Rockwell and Churchill, 1892
- ^ Bret E. Carroll. Spiritualism in antebellum America. Indiana University Press, 1997
- ^ Library of Congress. African American Odyssey
- ^ AAS. African-American History Resources
- ^ Boston Directory. 1820, 1832
- ^ Boston Almanac, 1847. Boston Directory, 1849, 1852
- ^ Boston Directory. 1856
- ^ Boston Directory. 1858, 1862
- ^ American Antiquarian Society. Bela Marsh Papers, 1830-1865
- ^ Boston Almanac. 1838
External links
edit- WorldCat. Marsh, Bela 1797-1869
- Open Library. Bela Marsh, publisher
- Library of Congress. Position of the Democratic Party in 1852. "Freemen of America, how long will you be ledd by such leaders" (item sold by Marsh)