American plays as well as British ones were published without regard for any copyright before 1790, the date of the U.S. copyright act. Between 1765 and 1800 the American press published at least 254 editions of plays. Over 100 publishers in 21 cities in 10 States were publishing plays in the 18th century. The theater determined the market for a play, since the theater audience provided the purchasers for the published play. The first play to be published in the American colonies was an untried five-act blank-verse tragedy by Thomas Godfrey of Philadelphia (1765). Banned in 1774 by the Continental Congress, the theater resumed in the mid-1780's to enthusiastic audiences and was flourishing by the 1790's. Although only 65 plays were published between 1765 and 1789, 189 editions of British and American plays were published in the 1790's. Although American publishers considered printing an established play too big a risk in 1765, the growing respectability and popularity of the theater by 1865 assured the profitability of publishing even amateur plays by beginning playwrights. Includes a chronological index of American printed plays to 1800, a list of dramatic copyrights to 1800, and an index of American plays to 1865. Based partly on primary sources; 50 notes.