Editor’s note: This article is part of a series reviewing the history of Utah and the United States for the Historical 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 pieces of art, music and literature from the history of 1925 enter the world in the public domain.
If you are not familiar with the public domain, it is a collection of materials that no longer have copyright or intellectual property rights that is now available for the public to expand. All works – from songs to novels and inventions – end up there for future generations to build.
The Center for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University explains it this way: you still need to buy a copy of Homer’s “The Odyssey”, but you don’t have to go through legal obstacles to turn your ideas into new and modern pieces, like when the Coen brothers used it to create the film “Brother, where are you?” The most notable examples of everyday life in the public domain can be found in stores when buying medicines and generic products.
The public domain can also give a second life to pieces 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 extend the film’s copyright, pointed out the Center for the Study of the Public Domain. Although his soundtrack and the tale on which it was based were kept under copyright, it became a holiday classic because it was available for TV stations to run for free and new audiences seemed to love him.
In accordance with current US law, all published materials have a useful life of 95 years in the United States before entering this portal and becoming available to the public. It was not always so. For example, the art lasted a maximum of 56 years until 1978. This means that notable creative pieces like “Mary Poppins”, “A Hard Day’s Night” by the Beatles and “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein – all released in 1964 – they could have been on this year’s list.
However, there are still some big names going into the public domain. Here are 21 notable works going into the public domain in 2021:
Books
“An American Tragedy” by Theodore Dreiser
- Special note: Modern Library, founded in 1917, classified this as the best No. 16 novel of all time.
“Arrowsmith” by Sinclair Lewis
“The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Special note: This is probably the most notable work going 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. The Modern Library ranked it as the second best novel of all time, while Time Magazine ranked it in fifth place.
“The New Negro: Voices of the Harlem Revival” by Alain Lock
- Special note: This is a collection of works that include writings by Countee Collen, WEB du Bois, Langston Hughes and more.
Virginia Woolf’s “Mrs. Dalloway”
“In Our Time” by Ernest Hemingway
- Special note: this signals the start of a wave of popular Hemingway works that will become public in the coming decades. Hemingway was 26 when a collection of short stories was published as “In Our Time”. His first novel, “The Sun Also Rises”, 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 of Duke Ellington, including “Jig Walk” and “With You”
A collection of “Jelly Roll” Morton, including “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, including “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 more commonly associated with the Harlem Globetrotters theme song.
Movies
“The Freshman” starring 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” starring ZaSu Pitts
“Stella Dallas” starring Ronald Colman and Belle Bennett
“The Unholy Three”, starring Lon Chaney and Victor McLaglen
- Special note: a remake of the film was released in 1930 as a “talkie”.
The Public Domain Study Center has a list of more creatives going into the public domain; It can be found here.
Carter Williams