Who ordered this timeline?

There’s the 1980 we know from memory and history, and there’s the 1980 of Just Imagine, where people have names like “J-21”, need permits to marry, and travel in both dirigibles and Mars rockets. For Wonder Stories, the movie, 27 days away from the public domain, was “for those who do not take their science fiction too seriously”, and the mix of futuristic setting with already-dated vaudeville bits was a box-office bomb. But the Oscar-nominated visuals remain striking. #PublicDomainDayCountdown

#publicdomaindaycountdown

“Harlem is today the Negro metropolis”

James Weldon Johnson's "Black Manhattan" traces Black New Yorkers' lives and art from 17th-century New Amsterdam through the Jazz Age, showing the Harlem Renaissance as culmination, not miracle.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

https://everybodyslibraries.com/2025/12/04/harlem-is-today-the-negro-metropolis/

#books #publicDomainDayCountdown

“Harlem is today the Negro metropolis”

By 1930, the Harlem Renaissance was undeniably a major force in American culture. While to many the rising visibility of New York Black artists might seem like “a miracle straight out of the skies”, James Weldon Johnson wrote that it was a long time coming. His Black Manhattan tells the story of Black New Yorker’s lives and artistic creations from 17th century New Amsterdam through the Great Migration and the Jazz Age. Johnson’s book joins the public domain in 28 days. #PublicDomainDayCountdown

#publicdomaindaycountdown

Ogden Nash makes a splash

Ogden Nash found success after The New Yorker hired him in 1930, launching a long career of humorous, playful verse. His earliest published poems enter public domain pretty soon.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

https://everybodyslibraries.com/2025/12/03/ogden-nash-makes-a-splash/

#books #poetry #publicDomainDayCountdown

Ogden Nash makes a splash

"I would live all my life in nonchalance and insouciance
Were it not for making a living, which is rather a nouciance"

Ogden Nash had tried to make a living teaching, selling bonds, and writing ad copy. But after he sent some satirical lines to The New Yorker, the magazine offered him a job. Nash’s verse debuted there in 1930, the start of a long career of humor and wordplay. His earliest published poems, including the couplet above, join the public domain in 29 days. #PublicDomainDayCountdown

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Destry’s long ride to the public domain

Max Brand's Destry became a symbol of Western clichés through multiple adaptations since 1930, though the famous versions strayed far from his original revenge-and-redemption tale of wrongful conviction.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

https://everybodyslibraries.com/2025/12/02/destrys-long-ride-to-the-public-domain/

#books #publicDomainDayCountdown

https://youtu.be/LY9RS1x8iHE #PublicDomainDayCountdown

Destry’s long ride to the public domain

“Destry Rides Again and Again and Again” quipped John D. Weaver in a 1963 article that uses Max Brand’s character as a symbol of western cliches. By then Destry’s story, first serialized in 1930 in Western Story Magazine as “Twelve Peers”, had multiple adaptations, but the best-known had little to do with Brand’s novel, a tale of Destry’s revenge and repentance after a stacked jury wrongly convicts him. The original Destry Rides Again joins the public domain in 30 days. #PublicDomainDayCountdown

#publicdomaindaycountdown

“It takes two people to make you, and one people to die”

Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying," set in Yoknapatawpha County, enters US public soon. Despite 15 stream-of-consciousness narrators making it challenging, Holly at Nut Free Nerd explains why it's worth reading.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

https://everybodyslibraries.com/2025/12/01/it-takes-two-people-to-make-you-and-one-people-to-die/

#books #publicDomainDayCountdown

“It takes two people to make you, and one people to die”

The Public Domain Review has begun its own #PublicDomainDayCountdown to 2026, featuring works and authors joining the public domain in countries around the world.

It leads off with William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, a sprawling family drama set in his Yoknapatawpha County that joins the public domain in the US in 31 days. With 15 different characters narrating in stream-of-consciousness style, it’s not the easiest book to get into. Holly at Nut Free Nerd writes why the book’s worth the effort.

#publicdomaindaycountdown

Betty Boop has her moment

Fleischer Studios' Bimbo cartoons succeeded in 1930, but Betty Boop stole the show debuting in "Dizzy Dishes" singing "I Have to Have You." She starred in 100+ cartoons, undergoing makeovers due to censorship, per Emily Wishingrad.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

https://everybodyslibraries.com/2025/11/30/betty-boop-has-her-moment/

#cartoon #publicDomainDayCountdown

Betty Boop has her moment

The Fleischer Studios found success in 1930 with a series of cartoons starring Bimbo, a rascally anthropomorphic dog. But when a curvaceous human with some canine features sang “I Have to Have You” in Dizzy Dishes, both Bimbo and movie audiences fell hard for her. Betty Boop went on to star in over 100 cartoons, with multiple makeovers prompted in part by censors, as Emily Wishingrad chronicles in Smithsonian. Her first appearances join the public domain in 32 days. #PublicDomainDayCountdown

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“From the chintz-covered drawing-rooms… straight into hell”

Evadne Price's "Not So Quiet...Stepdaughters of War," inspired by a real ambulance driver's diary, powerfully depicts war's horrors. Lucy Scholes calls it "a shattering denunciation of the jingoism that kept the war machine turning."

By John Mark Ockerbloom

https://everybodyslibraries.com/2025/11/29/from-the-chintz-covered-drawing-rooms-straight-into-hell/

More about it:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Not_So_Quiet:_Stepdaughters_of_War

#books #PublicDomainDayCountdown

“From the chintz-covered drawing-rooms… straight into hell”

Evadne Price was asked to write a lighthearted spoof of All Quiet on the Western Front, but went a different way after reading the diary of a woman ambulance driver in France. Not So Quiet…Stepdaughters of War pulls no punches describing people put into the meat-grinder of war by those comfortably far from danger. Lucy Scholes calls her feminist novel, joining the US public domain in 33 days, “a shattering denunciation of the jingoism that kept the war machine turning.” #PublicDomainDayCountdown

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“The road leads back to you”

"Georgia on My Mind" by Hoagy Carmichael is likely about the state, not his sister. Ray Charles' version became Georgia's official song. Legend says Carmichael paid royalties to lyricist Stuart Gorrell after omitting him from copyright, but both names appear on the 1930 record.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

https://everybodyslibraries.com/2025/11/28/the-road-leads-back-to-you/

#music #publicDomainDayCountdown

“The road leads back to you”

“Georgia on my mind” has a long and legendary history. While some say the song’s “Georgia” was composer Hoagy Carmichael’s sister, it’s now generally understood to be the state, particularly since Georgia’s own Ray Charles recorded it. His version was made Georgia’s official state song.

Another legend says Carmichael voluntarily paid royalties to lyricist Paul Gorrell after he was left off the copyright, which ends in 34 days. But I found both names on the 1930 record. #PublicDomainDayCountdown

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“You must sometime fight it out or perish”

Dr. Luella Axtell, a Marinette physician and civic advocate, promoted public health, the environment, and women’s rights. Her book Grow Thin on Good Food offered sensible diet-and-exercise advice ahead of its time.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

https://everybodyslibraries.com/2025/11/27/you-must-sometime-fight-it-out-or-perish/

#books #PublicDomainDayCountdown

“You must sometime fight it out or perish”

Dr. Luella Axtell set up practice with her husband in 1900 Marinette, Wisconsin, and remains a local hero for her public service and advocacy for public health, environmental protection, and women’s rights. She even features in a recent local murder mystery.

Her well-reviewed Grow Thin on Good Food gives diet and exercise advice similar to today’s, avoiding pop culture’s “one weird trick” fads (if not entirely its fat-shaming). It joins the public domain in 35 days. #PublicDomainDayCountdown

#publicdomaindaycountdown

“No-one in the room but the corpse”

Charles Williams, a lesser-known Inkling who influenced Lewis, Tolkien, and Eliot, debuted with War in Heaven, a supernatural thriller mixing mystery, Christian themes, and a mystical quest for a powerful artifact.

By John Mark Ockerbloom

https://everybodyslibraries.com/2025/11/26/no-one-in-the-room-but-the-corpse/

#books #publicDomainDayCountdown

“No-one in the room but the corpse”

Charles Williams is not as well known today as his fellow Inklings CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. But his work influenced theirs, and that of other writers like TS Eliot. The first of his supernatural thrillers, War in Heaven (reviewed here), opens like a detective story with a dead body, and closes like a mystical experience with another one, along the way including Christian themes and a quest focused on an object of great power. It joins the US public domain in 36 days. #PublicDomainDayCountdown

#publicdomaindaycountdown