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F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is about to premiere (May 10 ,2013) with Leonardo DiCaprio playing the lead part of Jay Gatsby. Many American high school students may now look forward to reading  The Great Gatsby to discover more about the story and character that the very popular actor Leonardo DiCaprio portrays.

That’s fine. The book is great literature and students should want to read one of the greatest American novels. But Gatsby’s story is intriguing on many different levels. Students would be further interested if teachers told them that the character Jay Gatsby is the modern equivalent of drug lord.  The difference is that today in the United States, we have drug prohibition creating vast fortunes instead of 1920′s alcohol prohibition.

I think students would also be more interested if they saw the parallels between F.Scott Fitzgerald and Jay Gatsby. How Fitzgerald sought fortune through writing and how Gatsby sought fortune as a bootlegger to both impress and win over a woman. Fitzgerald reminds us how much money and sex is a major theme in everyone’s lives.

First-time Fitzgerald readers may not know too that upon his death, F.Scott Fitzgerald and his books were largely forgotten. It took popular author/humorist and friend Dorothy Parker, whose today’s modern popular equivalent in the U.S. might be David Sedaris, to edit and publish a book that began the author’s revival.

This is the book below that really started it all.

Before the revival, like Gatsby, Fitzgerald was sad and tragic figure. After the age of thirty, his life began to spiral.

Something that English high school teachers usually fail to  mention is that Fitzgerald was a boozehound. This part of his life is chronicled in Budd Schulberg’s The Disenchanted. Budd Schulberg was a Hollywood scion, author of several notable books, and colleague of Fitzgerald during the Pat Hobby story days.

The cover of the paperback version is a little more telling about the connection with Fitzgerald.

I hope the movie will give students more insight into this fascinating period of American 1920′s history.  American women had just been given the right to vote in 1919 and the “flappers” were blazing new trails. Automobiles were now widespread. Ford had only introduced the first Model T in 1908. Young people now had more freedom of mobility and the luxury of unchaperoned rumble seats.  The end of World War I, jazz music, and a booming economy made “The Lost Generation” want to party like it was 1999.

But most importantly, the 1920′s encompassed the grand experiment called Prohibition. Fitzgerald purportedly modeled Jay Gatsby on a real-life character George Remus. The story of George Remus is one that is truly stranger than fiction. An incredibly interesting story that rivals Jay Gatsby and one that you would certainly never be told in bland American high school history books.

Charles Grayson and Audrey Totter out on a date on December 27th, 1948.

Noir actress Audrey Totter and screenwriter/author Charles Grayson

On the back of the photo -

Inside Hollywood by Nat Dallinger:
“When Audrey Totter proudly displayed her new mink coat, a friend proceeded to use his own method of determining the quality of the wrap. He can be seen at the right, blowing on the fur – whatever that proves. The chap seen with the actress is Charles Grayson, a screen writer who is expected to wed Audrey soon. Asked when she might become his wife, Audrey said, “We are just waiting for the right time.”

The relationship fizzled. Audrey Totter didn’t marry Charles Grayson. Five years later,  Audrey Totter married Dr. Leo Fred in 1953.

Charles Grayson was 45 and Audrey Totter was 30 years old at the time the photo was taken in 1948.  Charles died in 1973 and Audrey  is still alive today and residing at the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital.

Table from Wiki:

How do I find the copyright for old out of print books?

The term of copyright for a particular work depends on several factors, including whether it has been published, and, if so, the date of first publication. As a general rule, for works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus an additional 70 years.

For books copyrighted before 1978, you have to search through the renewal records.

Links:

Books published between 1923 & 1963 & had copyright renewed > Stanford Database

Google’s searchable scans of copyrights 1922-1977 > Google copyright search

Copyrights & renewals after 1978> United States Copyright Office

Here is an example.

The book The Show Case by Charles Grayson originally copyrighted on June 15, 1936. At that time, copyright right protection was set at 28 years plus another 28 years if the copyright was renewed and extended.

On May 25^th, 1964, Charles Grayson had the copyright extended for his book The Show Case another 28 years until the year 1992.

If the book’s copyright was not renewed in 1964, the book would have fallen into the public domain forever at that point in time. That is likely the case for the majority of the books published in 1936. But Charles Grayson renewed it and the book was set to enter the public domain in 1992.

That’s not the case anymore.

Since 1964, copyright right laws have changed. The book does not enter the public domain until after 2031.

How did that happen for a book (you’ve probably never heard of or will read ever) published in 1936?

The author, Charles Grayson died in 1973.

Since his death, three things happened to U.S. copyright protection laws.

• The Copyright Act of 1976
• Copyright Renewal Act of 1992
• Copyright Term Extension Act

From Wikipedia:

“The extension term for works copyrighted before 1978 that had not already entered the public domain was increased from twenty-eight years to forty-seven years, giving a total term of seventy-five years.”

Therefore under the Copyright Act of 1976 (law took effect in 1978), the still under copyright book had its copyright extended by 47 years and would have not gone into the public domain until 2011 (1936+28+47).

In effect, the book The Show Case was given a full term extension of 75 years (1936+75).

Then the Copyright Renewal Act of 1992 passed. This Act gave books published after 1964 the automatic extension of 47 years of copyright extension without the author having to renew after 28 years. Basically at this point in time, copyright protection became 75 years instead of the previous 28 years.

From Wikipedia:

“Works copyrighted between January 1, 1964 and December 31, 1977 are affected by the 1992 Amendment. Renewal registration for these works was made optional by this amendment, and a second term was automatically secured…However, if a copyright originally secured before January 1, 1964, was not renewed at the proper time, protection would have expired at the end of the 28th calendar year of the copyright”

Under the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 law another plus twenty years were added to the extension:

“Twenty more years were added to the second term for works copyrighted between January 1, 1964 and December 31, 1977 by Public Law 105-298. This made the total duration of copyright for these works 95 years.”

According to the 1998 law, since Charles Grayson had his copyright for The Show Case properly renewed in 1964, the copyright was then extended by another 20 years to 2031 (1936+75+20).

But, the law extended copyright protection to the author’s life plus 70 years. Basically, copyright protection is 95 years or 70 years + the author’s life.

So, Charles Grayson died in 1973.

Only if the work was created after 1977 does a work get the 70 years + life. See Cornell copyright link.

Therefore the book The Showcase published in 1936 goes into the public domain after 2031.

In summary, for books published between and including the years 1964 and 1977, copyright protection is 95 years. Published before 1964, public domain depends on if the book had the copyright renewed or not. While Charles Grayson only expected another 28 years of copyright protection in 1964, he received another 39 years on top of the 28 years due to subsequent changes in copyright law.

It is possible for a book published in 1923 to not be in the public domain until after 2018  (1923+95) if the author took the time to have the copyright renewed! But because most authors didn’t renew their copyright, books published in or before 1963 have a very good chance of being in the public domain.

From Google,

“For U.S. books published between 1923 and 1963, the rights holder needed to submit a form to the U.S. Copyright Office renewing the copyright 28 years after publication. In most cases, books that were never renewed are now in the public domain. Estimates of how many books were renewed vary, but everyone agrees that most books weren’t renewed. If true, that means that the majority of U.S. books published between 1923 and 1963 are freely usable.”