Category Archives: copyright

“Georgia on my mind” has a long and legendary history. While some say the song’s “Georgia” was composer Hoagy Carmichael’s sister, it’s now generally understood to be the state, particularly since Georgia’s own Ray Charles recorded it. His version was … Continue reading →

Dr. Luella Axtell set up practice with her husband in 1900 Marinette, Wisconsin, and remains a local hero for her public service and advocacy for public health, environmental protection, and women’s rights. She even features in a recent local murder … Continue reading →

Charles Williams is not as well known today as his fellow Inklings CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. But his work influenced theirs, and that of other writers like TS Eliot. The first of his supernatural thrillers, War in Heaven (reviewed … Continue reading →

Nancy Drew‘s first four mystery stories join the public domain in 37 days. She’s now the star of a multimedia franchise, and subject of a fascinating UMD Libraries exhibit. Nancy’s true authorship was once its own mystery. Syndicate contracts hid … Continue reading →

W. D. Ross was already known for his scholarly editions of Aristotle when he published his own lasting contribution to philosophy in 1930. The Right and the Good proposed an ethical theory not based on absolute rules or merely on … Continue reading →

Milt Gross was well known to many newspaper readers in the 1920s, with comics like Banana Oil and Nize Baby that skewered hypocrisy and reveled in absurdity. In 1930, he tried his hand at the wordless novel, which had become … Continue reading →

Monte Carlo, one of a string of movie musicals directed by Ernst Lubitsch, is now best known for the song “Beyond the Blue Horizon”. Jeanette MacDonald sings it over the background of a speeding train, taking her far away to … Continue reading →

Born to American missionary parents, Pearl S. Buck lived in China for most of her first 42 years. Her first novel, East Wind: West Wind, was one of many she wrote about Chinese people and culture, at a time when … Continue reading →

I always enjoy Sterling Dudley’s essays on the public domain. His first for this #PublicDomainDayCountdown season discusses the lively and varied stories set in Oz, from L. Frank Baum‘s original public domain books to Universal’s newly copyrighted Wicked: For Good. … Continue reading →