It’s that time of year again. Here’s a look at some of the stuff which has just gone out of copyright in the United Kingdom (and other countries with a copyright term of author’s life plus 70 years) are novelists Ruby M. Ayres, Beatrice Chase, Joseph Jefferson Farjeon, Constance Holme, Clemence Housman, Roger Mais and Thomas Mann (though in the latter’s case this only applies to his original writings in German, not to subsequent translations by other people); composers Alfredo Cuscinà, Isaak Dunayevsky, George Enescu, Arthur Honegger, Jaime Ovalle, James P. Johnson and Francesco Balilla Pratella; and scientists Albert Einstein and Sir Alexander Fleming; all of whom died in the year 1955.

As usual in recent years, the most intriguing load comes from works made in the United States in the year 1930, expiring under the term of publication plus 95 years. These include the first Betty Boop film Dizzy Dishes, the first Three Stooges film Soup to Nuts and the first major John Wayne film The Big Trail. There are also some works originating outside the United States in that year which now are public domain there but not here, such as Sir Alfred Hitchcock’s film Juno and the Paycock, which will remain under copyright in Britain and most of Europe until 2053. There is also a film adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front, which was made in the United States but adapted from a book first published in Germany, whose author lived until 1970.

Conversely, there are some American works first published after 1930 by authors who died in 1955, which thus are public domain here but not in their home country. Most prominent of these is Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936).

There is a further category of works which were already public domain in their home countries but are now entering it in the United States, such Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow by Piet Mondrian of the Netherlands (d. 1944) and Animal Friendship by Paul Klee of Switzerland (d. 1940).

We still have one more year to wait for the expiry of A. A. Milne’s copyright, and ten years for that of Sir Winston Churchill!