Today is my birthday. I was born at 12:02 a.m. on January 1, 1935 in Brooklyn’s Long Island College Hospital, a month pre-mature, into the deft hands of Dr. Joseph Brigger. My birthdays were celebrated by a blizzard of dollar bills at family New Years Eve parties. I never remember a separate birthday party until my first wife Linda threw a surprise one in 1961.
A half world’s distance between me and my family these days makes getting a present unlikely, so I’ve decided to give you all a present instead. How does the complete rights to A.J. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh sound, illustrations and all. My gift is reminding you that January 1 is Public Domain Day in the U.S. and the U.K.
This is the day when the 95-year copyright protection comes off all creative work done in 1927. A reproduction of any book, poem, drawing, photo, painting, film or recording is yours to do with as you will. Yes you can publish your own edition of any book, altered in any way, that was copyrighted in 1927.
Here is a list of the 100 best public domain books:
https://www.shortform.com/best-books/genre/best-public-domain-books-of-all-time
Here are sites where you can download free public domain books:
https://bluesyemre.com/2019/01/06/25-sites-with-free-public-domain-books-to-download-freeebooks/
And these are the public domain books added in 2022:
https://bookriot.com/public-domain-books-2022/
Here’s your chance to become an independent publisher in print or on line. Add illustrations, do annotations, change endings, repackage elegantly, combine with similar works - your imagination is your limit. But be sure to consult small print limitations.
HAPPY NEW YEAR.
May God help us to organize ourselves better in 2022 to deal with the viral challenges to our health, the ideological challenges to our sanity, the economic challenges to our generosity, and the emotional challenges to our humanity. May we learn to care about each other again and love those who are most bereft and make peace and justice our highest ideal. Then 2022 will have been happy.
If your resolution was to be a better person in 2022, you’ll get a good start by taking a free subscription to THE HOME STRETCH and making an old guy happy.