{"id":65362,"date":"2024-11-03T21:20:31","date_gmt":"2024-11-03T21:20:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/?p=65362"},"modified":"2025-02-09T19:07:41","modified_gmt":"2025-02-09T19:07:41","slug":"public-domain-in-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jurn.link\/tentaclii\/index.php\/2024\/11\/03\/public-domain-in-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Public domain in 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re fast approaching the copyright release season, at the start of 2025. Authors who died in 1954, and books and magazines published in 1929. Here are some items I dug up, which may interest Tentaclii<\/em> readers. Possibly there may be some I’ve missed, and if so please comment.<\/p>\n

\n

Writers who died in 1954:<\/strong><\/p>\n

* Edwin Baird, first editor of Weird Tales<\/em>. Books included…<\/p>\n

The City Of Purple Dreams<\/em> (anon)
\nThe Heart Of Virginia Keep<\/em>
\nFay<\/em>
\nWill-O’-The Wisp<\/em><\/p>\n

In movies, the writers for The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari<\/em> and Dr. Mabuse<\/em>. <\/p>\n

\n

Individual unusual books of interest, from authors who died in 1954:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Verse and voice:<\/p>\n

Aesop’s Fables Arranged For Voice.
\nThe Poems Of Wales.
\nThe Anthology Of Nonsense Verse.<\/em> [Reed, 1925].<\/p>\n

Potential for graphic-novel adaptations?:<\/p>\n

Herodotus, Father Of History.<\/em> [Presumably a popular biography].
\nBirth Of A Spitfire<\/em>. [How they were made, 1941].
\nThe Psychology & Tradition Of Colour.<\/em><\/p>\n

Activities that don’t age:<\/p>\n

Clog Dancing Made Easy.<\/em>
\nShell Collector’s Handbook.<\/em><\/p>\n

And a couple of local items only of interest to myself, but I’ll note them anyway. Louis Mellard, whose 1920s books included the intriguingly titled Lost Romances Of The Midlands<\/em>, Tramp Artist In Derbyshire<\/em>, and others.<\/p>\n

\n

Books and other publications of note from 1929:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of these may already be public-domain due to the author’s death-date.<\/em><\/p>\n

* Aleister Crowley<\/p>\n

Moonchild<\/em>
\nThe Stratagem and Other Stories<\/em><\/p>\n

* Frank Owen<\/p>\n

The Wind That Tramps the World<\/em><\/p>\n

* Maurice Reynard<\/p>\n

The Hands of Orlac<\/em><\/p>\n

* Sax Rhomer<\/p>\n

Book of Fu-Manchu<\/em><\/p>\n

* M.P. Shiel.<\/p>\n

The Purple Cloud<\/em> (revision)<\/p>\n

* William Seabrook<\/p>\n

The Magic Island<\/em> (first-hand book dealing with voodoo zombies, though a recent Lovecraft Annual<\/em> essay convincingly shows that Lovecraft had invented the modern horror zombie)<\/p>\n

* Joseph Gaer<\/p>\n

Burning Bush<\/em> (Jewish fairy tales)<\/p>\n

* Richard Tooker<\/p>\n

The Day of the Brown Horde<\/em> (neolithic ‘ancient man’ novel, well-known in its day)<\/p>\n

* John Taine<\/p>\n

The Greatest Adventure<\/em> (Antarctic horror-adventure)<\/p>\n

* Forrest Reid<\/p>\n

Walter De La Mare; A Critical Study<\/em>.<\/p>\n

* A. A. Milne<\/p>\n

Toad of Toad Hall<\/em> (from the world of Wind in the Willows<\/em>).<\/p>\n

* Lynd Ward<\/p>\n

Gods’ Man: a novel in woodcuts.<\/em> (proto graphic-novel)<\/p>\n

* Anthologies<\/p>\n

I see The Great Weird Stories<\/em> (Duffield, 1929), and Master Detective Stories<\/em> (Clode, 1929).<\/p>\n

\n

Known to Lovecraft:<\/strong><\/p>\n

* Bertrand Hart<\/p>\n

His Providence Journal<\/em> \u201cThe Sideshow\u201d columns for 1929, in which he jousted with Lovecraft and others.<\/p>\n

* de Castro (Lovecraft revisionist)<\/p>\n

Portrait of Ambrose Bierce<\/em> (1929, actually revised by Frank Belknap Long).<\/p>\n

* Myrta Alice Little<\/p>\n

“Sweet Christmas Time” (published poem, 1929).<\/p>\n

* Everett McNeil<\/p>\n

The Shores of Adventure; or, Exploring in the New World with Jacques Cartier<\/em> (1929, though some chicanery appears to have kept his later novels locked-down, when they should not be).<\/p>\n

* John L. Balderston<\/p>\n

Berkeley Square<\/em> (1929 published play, later made into a time-travel movie greatly admired by Lovecraft).<\/p>\n

Also note O\u2019Brien\u2019s The Dance of the Machines: The American Short Story and the Industrial Age<\/em> (1929), which was a book admired by Lovecraft. <\/p>\n

\n

The 1929 run of Weird Tales<\/em> and other pulp magazines, and their contents. Note F.B. Long’s “The Hounds of Tindalos”. I’m not looking at detectives in this brief survey, but I see Derleth’s first “Solar Pons” detective stories were written in 1929. Apparently they saw print in the same year, along with the first tales of Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade character.<\/p>\n

In comics, Buck Rogers<\/em> and Tintin<\/em> first appeared in 1929. In cartoons, there’s Popeye the Sailor-man<\/em>, and apparently the Silly Symphonies<\/em>(?). Though trademark-trolls may still claim the names.<\/p>\n

\n

Finally, in 1929 Gernsback first gave the name ‘science fiction’ to a new literary format. The first science-fiction fanzine appeared, Cosmic Stories<\/em>. The first continuous science-fiction comic strip appeared, an adaptation of a novel. The first spur for modern ‘sword & sorcery’ also appeared, Robert E. Howard\u2019s “The Shadow Kingdom” (Kull, in Weird Tales<\/em>). The anthology Beware After Dark!<\/em> (1929) put Lovecraft’s horror \u201cThe Call of Cthulhu\u201d between hardcovers, and the volume had wide popular distribution. The rest is history… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We’re fast approaching the copyright release season, at the start of 2025. Authors who died in 1954, and books and …<\/p>\n

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