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Originally Posted by barryem
That's a good point but I wonder if "First memorable English novel" is realistic. Before that there were the "Canterbury Tales". Not a novel but much closer to a novel than it is to a collection of short stories. I think the form was starting to take shape. And there was "Don Quixote" as well as the writings of Milton and quite a few others.
I think the significance of "Robinson Crusoe" might be that it kind of completed the evolution to what we know today as a novel.
I think if we didn't have copyright we'd still have many of the great and even the good novels. What we'd have a lot less of are genre things.
There are a lot of reasons people write novels and I'm sure money is one of the important ones. But there's also the urge to create and the desire for fame and recognition. We'd certainly have fewer novels but I'm not sure how much of a loss that would really be.
Barry
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The story of Milton dying in poverty and his granddaughter was one of the talking points that helped to get Queen Anne's passed. Of course, Milton's situation was a bit more complex than it was portrayed. In general, prior to Queen Anne writing was treated much like the current works for hire, i.e. the author was paid a sum for the work and the printer had the copyright. John Milton had a contract with the printer Samuel Simmons for Paradise Lost. Milton received 5 pounds when he turned over the finished product to Simmons, then another 5 pounds when 1,300 copies were sold.