Editor’s note: This article is part of a series reviewing the history of Utah and the United States in the History section of KSL.com.
SALT LAKE CITY – New Year’s Day is not just the beginning of 2021, it is the first day that thousands and thousands of works of art, music and literature from the history of 1925 enter the world of the public domain.
If you are unfamiliar with the public domain, it is a collection of materials that no longer have copyright or intellectual property that is now available for extension to the public. All works, from songs to novels to inventions, end up ending where future generations can delve deeper.
Duke University’s Center for the Study of the Public Domain explains it this way: You still have to buy a copy of Homer’s “The Odyssey,” but you don’t have to jump through legal circles to convert them. ideas in new modern pieces, like when the Coen brothers used it to create the movie “O Brother Where Art Thou?” The most notable everyday examples of the public domain can be found in stores when buying drugs and generic products.
The public domain can also give a second life to works of art. “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 expand the film’s copyright, noted the Center for the Study of Public Domain. Although its score and brief history on which it was based remained copyrighted, it became a holiday classic as it was available to free TV channels and new audiences. they seemed to love it.
Under current U.S. law, all published materials have a shelf life of 95 years in the United States before you enter this portal and it is available to the public. It wasn’t always like that. For example, the artwork lasted a maximum of 56 years until 1978. This means they could have featured creative pieces like “Mary Poppins,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” by The Beatles, and “The Giving Tree.” Shel Silverstein, all published in 1964. has been on this year’s list.
Still, there are still some big names heading into the public domain. The following are 21 outstanding works aimed at the public domain by 2021:
Books
“An American Tragedy” by Theodore Dreiser
- Special Note: Modern Library, founded in 1917, ranked it as the 16th best novel of all time.
“Arrowsmith” by Sinclair Lewis
“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Special Note: This is probably the most notable work heading into the public domain on Friday. More than 25 million copies of the American classic have been sold with annual sales of 500,000, according to Biblio. Modern Library ranked it as the second best novel of all time, while Time Magazine ranked it number 5.
“The New Negro: Voices of the Harlem Renaissance” by Alain Lock
- Special Note: This is a collection of works that include 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 a wave of Hemingway’s beloved works that will head into 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 Comes Out,” would not be published until 1927. This novel will be added to the public domain two years from Friday.
“The Judgment” by Franz Kafka
Music
“Always” by Irving Berlin
A collection by Duke Ellington, which includes “Jig Walk” and “With You”
A collection of “Jelly Roll” Morton, which includes “Shreveport Stomps” and “Milenberg Joys”
“Looking for a Boy” by George and Ira Gershwin
- Special note: from the musical “Tip-Toes”
A collection by Ma Rainey that includes “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 most commonly associated with the Harlem Globetrotters’ lead song.
Movies
“The Freshman” with Harold Lloyd
“Go West” with Buster Keaton
“Lovers in Quarantine” starring BeBe Daniels
- Special Note: This film is based on the 1924 play “Quarantine”.
“The Merry Widow” starring John Gilbert, Mae Murray and Roy D’Arcy
“Pretty Ladies” with ZaSu Pitts
“Stella Dallas” starring Ronald Colman and Belle Bennett
“The Unholy Three” with Lon Chaney and Victor McLaglen
- Special Note: A remake of the film premiered in 1930 as a “talkie.”
The Center for the Study of the Public Domain has a list of more creative pieces aimed at the public domain; can be found here.
Carter Williams