Happy New Year's and Happy Public Domain Day!

2026 is upon us! 

One thing that has become a NY tradition for me is checking out the works entering the public domain. You can find the complete list here, but here are a few that jumped out at me: 

 

Books:

• The Maltese Falcon (full book version) (Dashiell Hammett)
• The Murder at the Vicarage (The first Miss Marple story) (Agatha Christie) 
• The first four Nancy Drew books.
• As I Lay Dying (William Faulkner)
• Private Lives (Noel Coward) 
• Are you old? Would you like to feel older? The debut of Dick and Jane is now in the public domain: Elson Basic Readers (William H. Elson) 

Films:

• All Quiet on the Western Front (Director: Lewis Milestone, winner of the Oscar for Best Picture) 
• Animal Crackers (Director: Victor Heerman, starring the Marx Brothers)
• The Blue Angel (Director: Josef von Sternberg, starring Marlene Dietrich)
• Anna Christie (Director: Clarence Brown, starring Greta Garbo)
• Hell's Angels (Director: Howard Hughes, film debut of Jean Harlow) 

Music:

• Four songs by George and Ira Gershwin: I Got Rhythm, I've Got a Crush on You, But Not for Me, Embraceable You
• Dream a Little Dream of Me (Gus Kahn/Fabian Andre/Wilbur Schwandt)
• Livin' in the Sunlight, Lovin' in the Moonlight (Al Lewis/Al Sherman)
• Just a Gigolo (first English translation by Irving Caeser) 

Characters/Comics/Cartoons: various Betty Boop, Pluto, Blondie and Dagwood cartoons and comics, along with some more Mickey Mouse cartoons and comic strips, and ten more of Disney's Silly Symphonies.

 

Some interesting stuff this year.