Bela Marsh

Bela Marsh (1797-1869) was a publisher and bookseller in Boston, Massachusetts, in the 19th century.^[1] Authors under his imprint included Spiritualists^[2] and abolitionists^[3][4] such as John Stowell Adams, Adin Ballou, Warren Chase, Lysander Spooner, and Henry Clarke Wright. Marsh kept offices on Washington Street (ca.1820-1832),^[5] Cornhill (ca.1847-1852),^[6] Franklin Street (ca.1854-1856),^[7] and Bromfield Street (ca.1858-1868).^[8]

Among his business partners were Nahum Capen, Gardner P. Lyon, T.H. Webb, and George W. Williams.^[9] He belonged to the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association and the Physiological Society.^[10]

Marsh was the defendant in the seminal copyright case, Folsom v. Marsh (C.C.D. Mass. 1841), for publishing a two-volume abridgment of George Washington's letters, where the Justice Joseph Story found he had infringed the copyright in the 12-volume set of the same edited by Jared Sparks.^{[citation needed]}