James B. Hendryx -- Copyrights
Which pre-1964 works are still copyrighted?
The U.S. copyright law has changed several times
since JBH was writing, so these rules do not apply to
newer works. For his works (all before
1964 -- an important law change date), the rules
are as follows:
Published more that 75 years ago
This material is in the public domain.
That means that you can do anything you want with
it -- publish it, change it, sell it as your own,
etc. The only thing you can't do is copyright it.
Once something is in the public domain it remains
there. At the time I'm writing this page (1999),
everything any one published on or before 1924 is in the
public domain. If any pre-1964 work was copyrighted and the
copyright was renewed (on the 28th year),
the copyright extended to 75 years.
Copyright was never renewed
The first copyright period was 28 years. It was
possible to renew the copyright in the 28th year.
If the copyright was renewed, the 75-year rule
stated above applies (there were other rules for
a while, but this is the current law for pre-1964 works).
If the copyright was not renewed, the work
became public domain after 28 years.
Through the US Copyright office it's possible
to find out if it was renewed, and there is
now web access to that office, but I haven't tried it yet.
The copyright was renewed on all (?) of his novels.
I believe the copyright was also renewed on the Halfaday Creek
short stories and short stories that later appeared
in book form (eg, the Connie Morgan series).
If you want to publish a copyrighted JBH work
One of his grandchildren, Susan Hendryx, has taken the responsibility of
handling these matters. You can contact her at this email address:
Susan Hendryx shendryx@dlj.com
To learn more about copyright
The best book I've seen on copyright is
The Copyright Handbook : How to Protect & Use Written Works (4th Ed)
by Stephen Fishman, published by Nolo Press.
There are also a number of sources on the Internet.