AustLit

Facing fierce competition by American publishers issuing cheap pirated editions of English novels, publisher John Wertele Lovell founded the United States Book Company in 1890 in an attempt to gain a monopoly on cheap book production in the United States. The company was a giant publisher's trust which bought up or leased cheap reprint libraries and established a number of satellite companies to distribute the books. After the venture failed, due to overcapitalisation and to the effects of the International Copyright Act of 1891, the American Publishers Corporation was established by Lovell's creditors in an attempt to recoup their losses.