NPR has a very interesting interview with Matthew Pearl, author of The Last Dickens.
The story centers around the 19th century U.S. copyright laws which did not protect foreign authors, such as Charles Dickens. As a result, literary thieves called “bookaneers” would wait at the docks for new manuscripts to arrive from overseas, “ready to pilfer whatever they could get their hands on.” (read more at the Bookreporter.com)