Protect yours!
Launcelot Cressy Servos shows us how:
Mr Servos' notice faces a page in which he claims copyright; a second copyright claim follows on the obverse.
Authors, scenario writers, printers, publishers, motion picture producers and others take note:
Frontenac and the Maid of the Mist is now in the public domain. Not in the US or the UK, mind, but it's up for grabs in Canada – and I'm telling you that this novel of the Comte de Frontenac and his fictitious lady love is
very Canadian. I haven't actually managed to get through
Frontenac and the Maid of the Mist, but I have read the jacket flaps. After thumbing through the book itself, I can attest to their thoroughness and accuracy. Skip ahead to the fifth paragraph for the story itself.
That's it, the entire plot, including the climactic final scene. The pen picture painted does indeed make a deep impression. I was most taken by the poetry of Theala's last words in warding off Frontenac and accepting her fate:
"Great Chief! Great Chief!" said she, "I pray thee desist! Go I from you forever to be Maid of the Mist! From this rocky ledge to you torrent I go. To dwell eternal with the Manitou in the Falls below. And my spirit wafted upward on yonder haze, eternal shall be for men always to gaze! As I leave you forever I bid you goodby! Stand and watch my soul rising on yonder mist high!"
You can't write this stuff, but Launcelot Cressy Servos did.
So, let's get on it, shall we? Nearly ninety years have passed since
Frontenac and the Maid of the Mist first saw print and we're still awaiting that motion picture adaptation.
Who have we to blame?
Only ourselves.
