Monthly Archives: November 2023

Curmudgeonly British writer Evelyn Waugh published his first novel, Decline and Fall, in 1928. Reviewing it in 2008, Alex Larman found it “surely one of the greatest debut comic novels of the last century”, and wondered why it had never … Continue reading →

Mickey Mouse isn’t the only franchise character joining the public domain soon. In 1928, Singapore-born Leslie Charteris introduced the gentleman criminal Simon Templar, aka The Saint. Charteris published dozens of stories with the Robin Hood-like character. The Saint was also … Continue reading →

Disney celebrates Mickey Mouse’s birthday today, the 95th anniversary of the release of Steamboat Willie. Myles Burke writes how the success of the synchronized-sound cartoon saved the studio and paved the way for more ambitious animated films. In 44 days, … Continue reading →

Virginia Woolf’s Orlando depicts the title character’s transitions through multiple centuries and genders. Nearly a century after it was first published, it continues to have a vibrant and varied life. Joanna Scutts says it “laid the groundwork for today’s cultural … Continue reading →

Generations of readers have enjoyed Wanda Gág’s Millions of Cats, and kept it in print ever since its 1928 publication. The book is memorable both for its text (with the repeated cadence “Hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, Millions and … Continue reading →

The 1928 musical Good Boy is nearly entirely forgotten now, but one of its songs was a breakout hit. Helen Kane performed “I Wanna Be Loved by You” in the show, and the song was later famously taken up by … Continue reading →

“The history of the American musical theater,” wrote Miles Kreuger, “is divided quite simply into two eras: everything before Show Boat, and everything after Show Boat.” We’ve featured Show Boat in our #PublicDomainDayCountdown before. The Edna Ferber novel the show … Continue reading →

“For generations of women– and men– on their own difficult passages to sexual self-discovery, The Well of Loneliness became a beacon” writes Hephzibah Anderson on Radclyffe Hall’s 1928 novel, which joins the US public domain in 7 weeks. One of … Continue reading →

I was interested to scroll through the Goodreads reviews of Robert Nathan’s The Bishop’s Wife, a book not as well known or as much loved as its film adaptations (the 1947 movie of the same name, and the 1996 movie … Continue reading →

“My experiences in the First World War have haunted me all my life and for many days I have, it seemed, lived in that world rather than this.” Edmund Blunden wrote that over 40 years after he published Undertones of … Continue reading →