In normal times, I think this should have been posted on or about New Year’s Day, but these are not “Normal Times”.
So how about a belated wrap-up of a few works from 1925 that entered the Public Domain 1/1/2021? Don’t mind if I do . . .
Public Domain Day 2021 when each year the works from 95 years ago lapse (finally) into the Public Domain.
Some notable books, songs, movies:
The Great Gatsby
The Trial (in German)
Sweet Georgia Brown
The New Negro (collecting works from writers including W.E.B. du Bois, Countee Cullen, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, Jean Toomer, and Eric Walrond)
An American Tragedy
The Freshman
Go West
Milenberg Joys
Tired of Voting Blues (Bessie Smith)
Definitely check out the source material above from Smithsonian and the Duke School of Law. We’ve only been getting stuff into PD for a few years since the Sonny Bono Copyright Extension Act increased US copyright terms to 95 (!!!!!) years. Maybe the trees knew something we didn’t (too soon?).
1925 was quite a year for creative work. So go wild with your recordings, adaptations, your free reads on google books or the Internet Archive.
Got a favorite of 1925 that needs more attention?