Editor’s note: This article is part of a series that discusses the history of Utah and American history for the historical section of KSL.com.
SALT LAKE CITY – New Year’s Day is not just the beginning of 2021, it’s the first day that thousands and thousands of works of art, music and literature from the history of 1925 enter the world of public domain.
If you are not familiar with the public domain, it is a collection of material that no longer has copyright or intellectual property rights, and which is now available to the public. All works – from songs to novels to inventions – end up there for future generations to build on.
Duke University’s Center for the Study of Public Domain explains it this way: You still have to buy a copy of Homer’s “The Odyssey,” but you do not have to jump through legal hoops to turn ideas from it into new, contemporary pieces. not. , as when the Coen Brothers used it to make the movie “O Brother Where Art Thou?” to create. The most striking daily examples of the public domain can be found in stores when you buy generic medicines and products.
The public domain can also give artworks a second life. ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, for example, entered the public domain in 1975 because it was a box office failure and the copyright owner chose not to extend the film’s copyright, the Center for the Study of Public Domain pointed to. Although its score and the short story on which it is based were eventually kept under copyright, it has become a classic holiday because it was available for free to TV stations, and new audiences seem to love it.
Under current U.S. law, all published material has a shelf life of 95 years in the United States before it enters this portal and becomes available to the public. This was not always the case. The artwork, for example, lasted a maximum of 56 years until 1978. This means that well-known creative pieces such as ‘Mary Poppins’, ‘The Hard Day’s Night’ by the Beatles and ‘The Giving Tree’ by Shel Silverstein – all released in 1964 – could have been on this year’s list.
Nevertheless, there are still some big names referring to the public domain. Here are 21 notable works in the public domain on the road to 2021:
Books
“An American Tragedy” by Theodore Dreiser
- Special note: The Modern Library, founded in 1917, rates it as the best 16-novel of all time.
“Arrowsmith” by Sinclair Lewis
“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Special note: this is probably the most notable work going to the public domain on Friday. According to Biblio, more than 25 million copies of the American classic have been sold with an annual sales of 500,000. Modern Library considered it the second best novel of all time, while Time Magazine ranked it at number 5.
“The New Negro: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance” by Alain Lock
- Special Note: This is a collection of works, including writings by Countee Collen, WEB du Bois, Langston Hughes, and more.
“Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf
“In Our Time” by Ernest Hemingway
- Special note: this marks the beginning of the wave of Hemingway’s cherished works that are on their way to the public domain in the coming decades. Hemingway was 26 years old when a collection of short stories was published as “In Our Time”. His first novel, “The Sun Also Rises,” would not be published until 1927. The novel will be added to the public domain for two years from Friday.
“The Trial” by Franz Kafka
Music
“Always” by Irving Berlin
A collection of Duke Ellington, including “Jig Walk” and “With You”
A collection of “Jelly Roll” Morton, including “Shreveport Stomps” and “Milenberg Joys”
“Looking for a Boy” by George and Ira Gershwin
- Special note: From the musical “Tip-Toes”
A collection of Ma Rainey, including ‘Army Camp Harmony Blues’ and’ Shave ‘Em Dry’
“Manhattan” by Lorenz Hart and Richard Rodgers
“Sweet Georgia Brown” by Ben Bernie, Maceo Pinkard and Kenneth Casey
- Special Note: A 1949 version of this song is mostly associated as the theme song for the Harlem Globetrotters.
Movies
“The Freshman” starring Harold Lloyd
“Go West” starring Buster Keaton
“Lovers in Quarantine” starring BeBe Daniels
- Special Note: This film is based on the 1924 play “Quarantine”.
Starring “The Merry Widow” starring John Gilbert, Mae Murray and Roy D’Arcy
“Pretty Ladies” starring ZaSu Pitts
Starring “Stella Dallas” starring Ronald Colman and Belle Bennett
Starring “The Unholy Three” starring Lon Chaney and Victor McLaglen
- Special Note: A remake of the film was released in 1930 as a ‘talk’.
The Center for the Study of Public Domain has a list of more creative pieces that refer to the public domain; it can be found here.
Carter Williams