Category Archives: publicdomain

There’s something magical about Swallows and Amazons. It’s not anything supernatural or melodramatic, but as the Vacuous Wastrel notes, the book enchants readers with three worlds: the world of lake and islands that six children explore remarkably independently, the world … Continue reading →

Aaron Moss’s roundup of arrivals to the public domain in 2026 lists over 150 works newly out of copyright, and discusses how we can’t always reuse the versions we think we can of some public domain stories, songs, and characters. … Continue reading →

“The art of the murderer… is the same as the art of the magician,” is a line in John Dickson Carr’s first novel It Walks by Night. It expresses the spirit of this book, and of many of the later … Continue reading →

The 1930 Gershwin musical Girl Crazy made stars of Ethel Merman and Ginger Rogers, but by 1975, critic Lehman Engel called it “unrevivable” in its original form. The original script may be badly dated, but the songs, including “Embraceable You”, … Continue reading →

There’s the 1980 we know from memory and history, and there’s the 1980 of Just Imagine, where people have names like “J-21”, need permits to marry, and travel in both dirigibles and Mars rockets. For Wonder Stories, the movie, 27 … Continue reading →

By 1930, the Harlem Renaissance was undeniably a major force in American culture. While to many the rising visibility of New York Black artists might seem like “a miracle straight out of the skies”, James Weldon Johnson wrote that it … Continue reading →

“I would live all my life in nonchalance and insoucianceWere it not for making a living, which is rather a nouciance” Ogden Nash had tried to make a living teaching, selling bonds, and writing ad copy. But after he sent … Continue reading →

“Destry Rides Again and Again and Again” quipped John D. Weaver in a 1963 article that uses Max Brand’s character as a symbol of western cliches. By then Destry’s story, first serialized in 1930 in Western Story Magazine as “Twelve … Continue reading →

The Public Domain Review has begun its own #PublicDomainDayCountdown to 2026, featuring works and authors joining the public domain in countries around the world. It leads off with William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, a sprawling family drama set in … Continue reading →

The Fleischer Studios found success in 1930 with a series of cartoons starring Bimbo, a rascally anthropomorphic dog. But when a curvaceous human with some canine features sang “I Have to Have You” in Dizzy Dishes, both Bimbo and movie … Continue reading →