Everybody's Libraries

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 a bright future.

The song joins the public domain in 40 days, along with the film that introduced it. Alexander Courage noted the song as the inspiration for his Star Trek title theme, which accompanies a starship speeding into a bright future. #PublicDomainDayCountdown

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 Chinese were legally barred from migrating to the US, and widely discriminated against here. Jocelyn Eikenburg wrote in 2008 about how she saw some of her own cross-cultural experiences reflected in Buck’s novel, which joins the public domain in 41 days. #PublicDomainDayCountdown

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.

He notes Ruth Plumly Thompson‘s The Yellow Knight of Oz will soon cross to the public domain side (in 42 days). In 2010, Mari Ness wrote about how the story differs from other official Oz canon, and how it’s “delightful” nonetheless.

Strong Poison introduces Harriet Vane as an accused murderess. Lord Peter Wimsey quickly falls for her, but Harriet refuses the detective’s suit. Victoria Janssen discusses how each eventually finds the other a worthy match over several more books, and how they add unusual depth to Dorothy L. Sayers‘ mystery series.

I also eventually found a worthy match with the woman who introduced me to Sayers with this book. We’ll celebrate it in the US public domain in 44 days. #PublicDomainDayCountdown

Generations of stargazers and astronomy students learned about the universe from Robert H. Baker. The University of Illinois Observatory director published and revised astronomy textbooks and popular books into his 80s, with revisions by others continuing into the 1970s. His first book, Astronomy: An Introduction, debuted just in time to depict the 1930 discovery of Pluto, called “Trans-Neptunian Planet” in the first edition. It joins the public domain in 45 days. #PublicDomainDayCountdown

The slapstick comedy team once known as Ted Healy and His Southern Gentlemen started in vaudeville, but got their big break in pictures in the 1930 feature film Soup to Nuts. Ted had top billing, but Moe, Larry and Shemp stole the show, and went on to a long career as the Three Stooges (officially so named after Curly replaced Shemp in 1932). Michael Ruhland has more about the movie, which also features its writer Rube Goldberg, and joins the public domain in 46 days. #PublicDomainDayCountdown

In 47 days, Agatha Christie’s first novel starring Miss Marple joins the US public domain. The Murder at the Vicarage, which also introduces her home village of St Mary Mead, is not the spinster detective’s most popular case, partly because she acts more catty than in later books. But Dorothy L. Sayers praised it, saying “Dear old Tabbies are the only possible right kind of female detective, and Miss M is lovely.” (Sayers’ own female detective debuts later in our #PublicDomainDayCountdown .)

Cimarron was 1930’s best-selling novel in the US, but more people now remember its movie adaptations than the story Edna Ferber wrote. As Taylor Jasmine notes, passages she meant as satire were taken as straight-up Western storytelling. And, while Ferber criticized whites’ treatment of Native Americans, her narrative also has its own racial stereotyping. When Cimarron goes public domain in 48 days, we can more easily remember what she wrote, and reimagine it as we like. #PublicDomainDayCountdown

Blondie Bumstead (née Boopadoop) and her family and friends have appeared every day in newspapers for over 95 years. Created by Chic Young in 1930, and still overseen by his son Dean, Blondie has stayed relevant by changing with the times, from carefree flapper to homemaking mother to catering businesswoman. Today you can check out a 2000 online exhibit of Blondie’s early years at the Library of Congress, and in 49 days her first strips will join the public domain. #PublicDomainDayCountdown