Patrick Murphy

The "Manual of the Plants of Colorado" by H.D. Harrington has been out of print since about 1978.   I have taken on the task of tracing the status of the copyright to see if the Colorado Native Plant Society could obtain it and republish the manual.  The final signature on the license to publish document was dated July 2, 2001.  This document was signed by the family that owns the copyright (daughters of Laurence Durrell), and grants a 5 year permission to reproduce and distribute the manual.  They are making this offer with no requirement for compensation.  We are deeply grateful.

The CD is now available from the Colorado Native Plant Society for $15.00.  

The following ten items document the process, sorry about the large Adobe .pdf file sizes.

1. My first search of the U.S. Copyright online information (1.3 M).  This indicated that the current copyright holders are Mrs. Kaiser and Mrs. Laupa.  The copyright was renewed on December 27, 1982.

2. The result of my formal request from the U.S. Copyright Office for all available information (1.6M).  This indicated that Mrs. Laupa and Mrs. Kaiser are the children of the author (actually they are the children of Laurence Durrell), and the copyright renewal was submitted by Ohio University Press.

I used the internet to track down Thomas Laupa (son of Dorothy Laupa) in Fort Collins, and he was able to give me his mother's and aunt's addresses and phone numbers.

3. Fax to Thomas Laupa requesting information and describing our purpose (1.4 M).

4. Fax to Ohio University Press (Swallow Press) requesting information (2.1 M).

5. Response from Ohio University Press (2.3 M) indicating that the printing rights had reverted back to the daughters of Laurence W. Durrell.

6. Copy of the letter that Ohio University Press sent to Dorothy Laupa (2.2 M).

7. More complete letter to Mr. Laupa detailing goals for using the right to publish the manual (2.9 M).

8. Draft of copyright transfer document (1.3 M) submitted to Jill Handwerk and Thomas Laupa.

9. Revised draft returned by Thomas Laupa (1.9 M) indicating an intent to grant a 5 year permission to publish, distribute, and sell the manual.

10. Final signed permission (170K) for the 5 year (June 2001 -June 2006) permission to publish, distribute, and sell the manual.

  Definition of Ecotone - a transition zone between two ecological communities usually exhibiting competition between organisms common to both.  In terms of biological communities, these "in between" areas are typically the most productive and diverse zones on the landscape.