Is this book in the public domain?

Puckwudgie · Post by **Puckwudgie** » May 30th, 2018, 9:31 pm

I’ve got a few books I’m eyeing to read, but I’m at a total loss as to figuring out their status. I’ve asked the local libraries and even sent an email to the Library of Congress to check, but am running into a field of mouse traps that trips me into a wall of electric barbed wire (because a brick wall is too cliched). Any tips to get me over this impass? Thank you my literary amigos!

Post by **annise** » May 30th, 2018, 9:46 pm

What book ? Nobody can help you if we don't know.
You will have to do a couple of things before starting on a Solo though , just follow the suggestions in the welcome email you got, especially re the one minute test

Anne

msfry · Post by **msfry** » May 31st, 2018, 6:55 am

Generally speaking for the USA, anything published BEFORE 1923 is PD. Of course, government documents and reports are automatically PD, and some authors purposely release their more modern works into the PD. I have found that if you name a book and author you are interested in to the Book Suggestions forum, someone there will step up and research it for you.

But I second Annise. Before striking out on a solo, it's best to get our process under your belt. After gaining some experience with the system, you'll be on your way to setting up projects of your own. It's exciting, isn't it!!!

Puckwudgie · Post by **Puckwudgie** » May 31st, 2018, 3:45 pm

I want to look into the Arundel series by Kenneth Roberts, they should be. Thanks for getting back to me Anne.

Puckwudgie · Post by **Puckwudgie** » May 31st, 2018, 3:47 pm

Thank you as well Michele, I will look into it via your suggestions.

Post by **TriciaG** » May 31st, 2018, 4:30 pm

At first glance, it's not promising:
"He worked first as a journalist, becoming nationally known for his work with the Saturday Evening Post from 1919 to 1928, and then as a popular novelist." (Wikipedia)

That would imply to me that his books were published after 1928

Further down in the Wikipedia article, it has a list of his books. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Roberts_(author)#Books

Europe's Morning After (1921), a collection of Saturday Evening Post essays
Why Europe Leaves Home (1922), a collection of Saturday Evening Post essays on immigration
Sun Hunting: Adventures and Observations among the Native and Migratory Tribes of Florida (1922), humorous essays, Florida promotion
Black Magic (1924), a collection of Saturday Evening Post essays
...

That's all that was published 1922 or before, when they'd be automatically PD.

I looked for him over at Project Gutenberg, and there's nothing over there. I'm concluding his later works (his books) are still under copyright.

Puckwudgie · Post by **Puckwudgie** » June 1st, 2018, 8:42 am

Thank you for the research. I was worried of that as I continued to look, but I’m going to do a little more before I totally give up. I appreciate it a lot TriciaG

Post by **annise** » June 1st, 2018, 2:04 pm

In general we will not accept people reading from a text published after 1922 unless it was been cleared by project gutenberg, they have the legal people to check it, we do not. The process is quite complicated .

Anne

Puckwudgie · Post by **Puckwudgie** » June 1st, 2018, 10:04 pm

Thank you Anne, that was very helpful. I’ll look into other other options, since I know he wasn’t putting out the matterials I was interested in starting with before then. Now that I know about Project Gutenberg I’ll just look into them for my own edification, and at the same time try to find something else to do for now.