Lists of Public Domain Books

• Laura Fisher biography — see PDF of scans

• Laura Fisher

  • (+) LAPL: Amy and the Sorrel Summer, 1964 - renewal here and here (copyright claimant of Holt and co. = "new matter: cover illustration ...")
    • renewal means: 56 + 1964 = public domain 2020 NO: means 95 year law applies...
    • pages already scanned by JFU
  • Have physical copy, need to scan. You Were Princess Last Time, 1965 = 1993 expired
  • Have physical copy, need to scan. Never Try Nathaniel, 1968 - 1996 expired
  • Charlie Dick, 1972 - 2000 expired

• Grossmith, Diary of a Nobody (+)

• (+) Ellen C. Babbitt, Jataka Tales. combined into one volume:

  • Jataka Tales, 1912, ~11,500 words
  • More Jataka Tales, 1922, ~12,300 words
  • see here:
    • https://www.loc.gov/search/?in=&q=Ellen+C.+Babbitt&new=true&st=
    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jataka_tales

• Anatole France

  • The Revolt of the Angels, PG, ~73,000
  • 33 chapter book, (novel-like); production could be fairly easy, just the artwork could be hard:
    • https://standardebooks.org/contribute/art
    • https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/the-fall-of-the-rebel-angels/ewEs_8lOXkz7tQ
    • https://www.fine-arts-museum.be/nl/de-collectie/pieter-i-bruegel-de-val-van-de-opstandige-engelen?letter=b&artist=bruegel-brueghel-pieter-i-1
    • https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder_-The_Fall_of_the_Rebel_Angels-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

• H. Rider Haggard - She - novel, 120,000 words or so

• H. Rider Haggard - Cleopatra - novel, 102,000 words or so

• Epictetus

  • Discourses
    • see Wikimedia Commons missing link to Discourses
    • Gutenberg: The Teaching of Epictetus: Being the ‘Echeiridion of Epictetus,' with Selections from the 'Dissertations' and 'Fragments.'
    • Gutenberg: Lists of the Works of Epictetus

• Saki (H. H. Munro), collections of short stories PG

  • The Chronicles of Clovis ~52,000 words
  • Beasts and Super-Beasts 61,750 words
  • The Toys of Peace 60,600+ words
  • The Westminster Alice 38,800+ words
  • The Unbearable Bassington (novel) 47,700+ words
  • When William Came (novel) just under 50,000 words
  • Reginald 13,800+ words
  • Reginald in Russia under 22,000 words
  • The Rise of the Russian Empire 115,000+ words (non-fiction)

• Khalil Gibran

  • The Prophet (1923), 12,300 words: PG

• Thomas Paine

  • The Age of Reason (72,500 words) PG
  • The Rights of Man (93,340 words) PG
  • Writings (total: 283,120 words)
    • Thomas Paine, Writings, Vol. I - The American Crisis, (not including Common Sense) - 78,220 words PG
    • Thomas Paine, Writings, Vol. III - French Independence, etc. (not including Common Sense) - 159,220 words PG
    • Thomas Paine, Common Sense - 22,160 words PG
    • Thomas Paine, A Letter Addressed to the Abbe Raynal, on the Affairs of North America; in which the Mistakes in the Abbe's Account of the Revolution of America are Corrected and Cleared Up. PG - 23,520 words

• E. T. A. Hoffmann (also Bibliography)

  • Short Fiction - 6 stories ~= 120,000 words (+)
    • The Golden Pot (1814): the translation by Frederic H. Hedge is in there somewhere. Also: page scans. (20,770 words)
      • 1827 English edition of this book, page scans at Hathi Trust (copyright page), also read the story starting here
    • Cremona Violin = the Story of Krespel extra Project Gutenberg, single E.T.A. Hoffmann story: redundant
    • Tales from the German, 1844 tr. by John Oxenford
      • The Sand-Man (newer translation in Weird Tales)
      • The Elementary Spirit 16,200 words (Letzte Erzählungen, 1821)
      • The Jesuits' Church in G—— 12,724 words (Nachtstücke, 1816)
    • Weird Tales, tr. 1885 by J. T. Bealby (Short Fiction): Vol. I and Vol. II
      • The Cremona Violin = The Story of Krespel
      • The Fermata, 1815 = An Interrupted Cadence
      • Signor Formica
      • The Sand-Man, (15,100 words). (Nachtstücke, 1816)
      • The Entail(ment) (34,500 words). Also published as “Das Majorat [‘Primogeniture’]” (Nachtstücke, 1817) (according to a review on Goodreads)
      • Arthur's Hall = The Artus Hof below
      • The Doge and Dogess
      • Master Martin the Cooper
      • Mademoiselle de Scudéri
      • Gambler’s Luck
      • Master Johannes Wacht, (20,000 words) - Letzte Erzählungen (1821)
    • The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, Page scans of 1853 translation by Mrs. St. Simon, illustrated. OCR of text, one page at a time. (via Goodreads and LibraVox). Estimated ~20,000 words.
  • The Serapion Brethren, pub. 1819-1821, Short Fiction Compilation by E. T. A. Hoffmann, translated to English by Ewing, Alexander (in two volumes), G. Bell & Sons: London, 1886-92. Hathi Trust Catalog result of the two volumes. Also Project Gutenberg Vol. I and Vol. II = 208,974 words + 199,656 words = 408,630 words. 22 stories, 19 named.
    • The Story of Serapion
    • The Story of Krespel (= The Cremona Violin)
    • An Interrupted Cadence (= The Fermata)
    • The Poet and the Composer
    • A Fragment of the Lives of Three Friends
    • The Artus Hof
    • The Mines of Falun
    • Nutcracker and the King of Mice
    • The Singers' Contents
    • Automatons -- early early Sci-Fi -- 11,150 words.
    • The Doge and the Dogaressa
    • Master Martin, The Cooper, and His Men
    • The Stranger Child
    • The Life of a Well-Known Character
    • Albertine's Wooers
    • The Uncanny Guest
    • Mademoiselle de Scudéri
    • Gamblers' Fortune
    • Signor Formica
    • Phenomena
    • The Mutual Interdependence of Things
    • The King's Betrothed
  • Novels:
    • The Devil's Elixirs. Goodreads for story description. Vol. I and Vol. II. About 130,000 words for both volumes.
    • The Life and Opinions of the Tomcat Murr (no English tr. to be found on Pr. Gut., just The Original in German)
    • The Master Flea 46,242 words Master Flea @ Pr. Gut.

• Lucy Mack Smith

  • (+) 1902, History of the Prophet Joseph, by His Mother (PG) 99,224 words. See Wikipedia entry.

• Sir Richard Francis Burton

  • Vikram and the Vampire: Classic Hindu Tales of Adventure, Magic, and Romance 77,630 words.
  • also V and the V 78,045 words.

• Beckford, William Thomas

  • Vathek (+) (37,023w.) PG

• R. L. Stevenson

  • New Arabian Nights 105,000 words.

• Nathaniel Hawthorne

  • The Scarlet Letter (pub. 1850). 83,032 words.

• Johnny Gruelle

  • Raggety Andy Stories, 15,000 words.
  • Raggety Ann Stories, 16,000 words.
  • Friendly Fairies, 16,000 words.
  • The Magical Land of Noom, 30,400 words.

• Six Characters in Search of an Author - Luigi Pirandello - 1921 - Italian - 19,800 words, in Three Plays (PG)

• Aesop's Fables, Translated by George Fyler Townsend, 35,477 words total, 310 little 1-1.05 paragraph Fables

  • http://classics.mit.edu/Aesop/fab.1.1.html
  • http://classics.mit.edu/Aesop/fab.2.2.html
  • http://classics.mit.edu/Aesop/fab.3.3.html
  • http://classics.mit.edu/Aesop/fab.4.4.html

• Pr. Gut. H. P. Lovecraft:

  • Alex already produced but there are legal problems (orphaned works or not?)
  • A Reminiscience of Dr. Samuel Johnson 2,045 words.
  • (same Un. Am. link above) Ex Oblivione - 700 words
  • (same UA link) Nyaralothep - 1750 words
  • (same UA link) (?essay re: the Great War / WWI?) At the Root - 765 words
  • (same UA link) The White Ship (2,530 words)
  • The Shunned House 10,820 words.
  • The Dunwich Horror 17,400 words.

• Lewis Carroll

  • (side track) what is Alice's Adventures Under Ground?
  • Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, about 40,000 words, which includes the Jabberwocky, the Walrus and the Carpenter, Tweedledee and Tweedledum.
  • Poems (not in Alice) ?
    • Hunting of the Snark 4540 words, < 700 lines.
    • (Note to self: You Are Old, Father William is in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

• Nathaniel Hawthorne

  • has a lot of novels and a lot of short fiction; here is one novel and one short story collection:
  • Twice-Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne (pub. 1837). 147,166 words. One of many short story collection publications by Hawthorne; could stand alone.
  • + The House of the Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne (pub. 1851). 104,876 words.

• Jean de La Fontaine

  • The Fables of La Fontaine 239 fables, 97,000+ words (verse). 1694. See Wikipedia

• Rudyard Kipling

  • Indian Tales. 36 stories. 168,273 words.

• Mark Twain

  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876. 71,150 words.
  • Jumping Frog and other Short Fiction -- in Complete PG works of MT somewhere, maybe duplicated and Sketches New and Old 1870, 97,890 words.

• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He died in 1930, which is 87 years ago. So everything he published in his lifetime should be PD?

  • Sherlock Holmes: TODO word counts too
    • Short Stories, including:
      • The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. 1892.
      • The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes. 1894.
      • The Return of Sherlock Holmes. 1905.
      • His Last Bow. 1917.
      • The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes. 1927. Copyright expiring story by story, year by year, starting 2019. F*** the copyright lobby.
  • Sherlock Holmes novels:
    • A Study in Scarlet. 1887.
    • The Sign of the Four. 1890. 43,080 words.
    • The Hound of the Baskervilles. 1902.
    • The Valley of Fear. 1915. (57512 words).

• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, non-Sherlock Holmes (Markdown cannot parse unindent correctly.)

  • The Poison Belt. Book 2 of Professor Challenger series, e.g. The Lost World is book 1.
  • The Land of Mist -- nothing on Project Gutenberg

• Lord Dunsany

  • Note to self: read The Book of Wonder and The Gods of Pegaña
  • TODO list of more stuff, novels? short fiction?

• Suggested Reading List of Short Stories

• Margery Williams Bianco

  • The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco - under 4000 words
  • nothing else in Gutenberg, although a few items might be PD:
  • 1902 The Late Returning - 205 pages x 166 words per page = about 34,000 words or fewer
  • 1904 The Price of Youth - 225 wwp x 312 p = 70,000 words
  • 1906 The Bar ...
  • 1914 The Thing in the Woods (republished in 1924 as by "Harper Williams")
  • 1936 Green Grows the Garden - 117 p x 265wwp = 31,000 words plus illustrations
  • ... more works listed in Bibliography
    • by inference, all her works are in the Public Domain, since she died in 1944. Where to find books, book scans, transcriptions?
  • 1944 Forward Commandos - 260 wwp * 184 pages = 45,000 words or so, plus illustrations.

• H. G. Wells - PG has tons of stuff by HGW

  • stuff everyone has heard of:
    • The Time Machine
    • The War of the Worlds
    • The Island of Doctor Moreau
    • The Invisible Man: A Grotesque Romance
  • MORE:
    • Kipps, on the SEbooks wanted list
    • The Red Room - ?
    • When the Sleeper Wakes
    • The World Set Free - 64,970 (short fiction?)
    • The Plattner Story and Others - 77,845 (short fiction)
    • The Door in the Wall and Other Stories - 43,320 words. (short fiction)
    • Tales of Space and Time - 71,920 words (short fiction, some overlap with the above)
  • A Short History of the World (non-fiction) -- 112,260 words.

• Ambrose Bierce. All his works published in his lifetime are in the public domain since he died or disappeared in 1914.

  • Devil's Dictionary
  • Short Fiction
    • TODO sort through this:
      • Gutenberg list of works by Ambrose Bierce
    • Tales of Soldiers and Civilians. Bierce's famous story "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" is included in this collection.
    • Fantastic Fables (New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1899). Fiction: fables.
    • cf. A Vision of Doom
    • "A Psychological Shipwreck" (1879)
    • "Killed at Resaca" (1887)
    • "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" (1887)
    • "One of the Missing" (1888)
    • "A Tough Tussle" (1888)
    • "An Unfinished Race" (1888)
    • "One of Twins" (1888)
    • "A Horseman in the Sky" (1889)
    • "The Spook House" (1889)
    • "The Middle Toe of the Right Foot" (1890)
    • "The Man and the Snake" (1890)
    • "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" (1890)
    • "The Realm of the Unreal" (1890)
    • "The Boarded Window" (1891)
    • "The Secret of Macarger's Gulch" (1891)
    • "The Death of Halpin Frayser" (1891)
    • "The Damned Thing" (1893)
    • "The Eyes of the Panther" (1897)
    • "Moxon's Master" (1899)
    • "The Moonlit Road" (1907)
    • "Beyond the Wall" (1907)
    • TODO many more

• E. Nesbit

  • The Railway Children
  • The Enchanted Castle
  • TODO: Project Gutenberg has so many novel-length stories
  • TODO: Probably some Short Fiction to compile?

• Gayley and Bullfinch Mythology

• Jack London

  • more Short Fiction
  • more novels

• Harold Speed, The Practice and Science of Drawing. Also.

• Edgar Rice Burroughs

  • John Carter book 2 = The Gods of Mars
  • Tarzan of the Apes - book 1
  • At the Earth's Core
  • The Land that Time Forgot

• Edward Lear, Nonsense Books, which includes the Owl and the Pussycat, with their runcible spoon.

• Gayley et al (<= 1922)

  • Poetry of the People
  • Poetry, Its Principles and Progress

• John Muir

  • Stickeen: An Adventure with a Dog and a Glacier. 1897.
  • The Mountains of California. 1894.
  • The Yosemite. 1912.
  • A Thousand-mile Walk to the Gulf. 1916.
  • TODO many more

• Alexander Pope

  • Poetry. (massive project) PG for index
    • Essay on Man, and other essays PG (Essay on Man is actually a poem)

• William Shakespeare is totally DONE: Thank you Emma -- https://standardebooks.org/ebooks?query=shakespeare&sort=newest&view=grid&per-page=48

• Shakespeare Tragedies

  • Troilus and Cressida
  • Titus Andronicus
  • Cymbeline
  • Coriolanus
  • Romeo and Juliet
  • Timon of Athens
  • Julius Caesar
  • Macbeth
  • Hamlet
  • King Lear
  • Othello
  • Antony and Cleopatra

• Shakespeare Comedies

  • Measure for Measure
  • Love's Labour's Lost
  • The Winter's Tale
  • The Two Noble Kinsmen
  • The Tempest
  • Two Gentlemen of Verona
  • The Merry Wives of Windsor
  • The Comedy of Errors
  • Much Ado About Nothing
  • A Midsummer Night's Dream
  • The Merchant of Venice
  • As You Like It
  • The Taming of the Shrew
  • All's Well That Ends Well
  • Twelfth Night
  • Pericles, Prince of Tyre

• Shakespeare Histories

  • King John
  • Richard II
  • Henry IV, Part 1
  • Henry IV, Part 2
  • Henry V
  • Henry VI, Part 1
  • Henry VI, Part 2
  • Henry VI, Part 3
  • Richard III
  • Henry VIII
  • Edward III (some think not WS)

• Shakespeare Poetry DONE

  • A list of more poems
  • 154 Sonnets x 14 lines = 2,156 lines
  • Venus and Adonis. 9880 words, < 1214 lines
  • The Rape of Lucrece, 15017 words, < 1908 lines
  • The Phoenix and the Turtle, 357 words, < 69 lines
  • A Lover's Complaint, 2566 words, < 336 lines

• H. C. Andersen.

  • The True Story of My Life: A Sketch (65,200 words)
    • some overlap with The Improvisatore (about 18,000 words) which can be downloaded as PDF of page scans and/or OCR which needs to be corrected / transcribed
  • TODO collate these Fairy Tales:
  • http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1597
  • http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/27200
  • http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32572
  • http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17860
  • http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/32571
  • http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/43600

• Voltaire

  • Not PD translation: Socrates (play). Under 9,000 words

• Berthold Auerbach

  • On the Heights, novel
  • Waldfreid, novel
  • Short Fiction
  • Edelweiss, a story
  • etc.

• 1001 Nights (Arabian Nights):

  • See editions table here and annoying iframes here
  • Burton's translation, vol. 1 of 16 173,840 words. -- texty vers. = 174,597 words @ 1008 KB
  • Burton's translation, vol. 2 of 16 157,085 words. -- 890 KB texty
  • Burton's translation, vol. 3 of 16 161,300 words. -- 914 KB texty
  • Burton's translation, vol. 4 of 16 137,052 words. -- 777 KB texty
  • Burton's translation, vol. 5 of 16 words. 1023 KB texty
  • Burton's translation, vol. 6 of 16 words. 769 KB
  • Burton's translation, vol. 7 of 16 words. 969 KB
  • Burton's translation, vol. 8 of 16 words. 918 KB
  • Burton's translation, vol. 9 of 16 words. 920 KB
  • Burton's translation, vol. 10 of 16 words. 1100 KB
  • Burton's translation, vol. 11 of 16 words. 690 KB
  • Burton's translation, vol. 12 of 16 words. 865 KB
  • Burton's translation, vol. 13 of 16 words. 1200 KB
  • Burton's translation, vol. 14 of 16 words. 803 KB
  • Burton's translation, vol. 15 of 16 words. 992 KB
  • Burton's translation, vol. 16 of 16 words. 996 KB
  • 14.834 MB or 629,277words/3,590KB = 175 words / KB --> about 2,600,000 words!

• The same, the tales proper: (1.6 mill. w.)

  • 1 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3435
  • 2 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3436
  • 3 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3437
  • 4 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3438
  • 5 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3439
  • 6 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3440
  • 7 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3441
  • 8 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3442
  • 9 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3443
  • 10 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3444

• Supplemental: (1 mill. w.)

  • 11 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3445
  • 12 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3446
  • 13 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3447
  • 14 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3448
  • 15 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3449
  • 16 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/3450

• Aucassin and Nicolete:

  • Just that one story, 18,000 words-ish:
    • Aucassin and Nicolete by Andrew Lang
    • Aucassin and Nicolette by Francis William Bourdillon
  • More stories: Aucassin & Nicolette, and Other Mediaeval Romances and Legends by Eugene Mason about 75,000 words

• Brothers Grimm

  • which translation?
  • which stories?
  • print version on the shelf (International Collector's library) has 211 stories and no copyright date or translator

• Beatrix Potter. She died in 1943, + 70 years = 2013

  • almost all of her stories were published before 1923, so include those 22: (< 28,000 words)
  • The Tale of Peter Rabbit (1902)
  • The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin (1903)
  • The Tailor of Gloucester (1903)
  • The Tale of Benjamin Bunny (1904)
  • The Tale of Two Bad Mice (1904)
  • The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle (1905)
  • The Tale of the Pie and the Patty-Pan (1905)
  • The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher (1906)
  • The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit (1906)
  • The Story of Miss Moppet (1906)
  • The Tale of Tom Kitten (1907)
  • The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck (1908)
  • The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or, The Roly-Poly Pudding (1908)
  • The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies (1909)
  • The Tale of Ginger and Pickles (1909)
  • The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse (1910)
  • The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes (1911)
  • The Tale of Mr. Tod (1912)
  • The Tale of Pigling Bland (1913)
  • Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes (1917)
  • The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse (1918)
  • Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes (1922)
  • X not out of copyright? -- The Tale of Little Pig Robinson (1930)
  • X just discovered/published/illustrated by Quentin Blake -- The Tale of Kitty-in-Boots (2016 posthumuous)

• Austen bonus items not on WGB list:

  • Lady Susan - 23,090 words (novella)
  • Juvenilia 35,550 words

• Aphra Behn -

  • Oroonoko (+) (32,500 words) buried in Behn's complete works, 13 stories - 177,000 w.
  • other twelve stories average 12,000 words or so

• Chamisso, Adelbert Von

  • Peter Schlemihl, the Shadowless Man (24,500w.) PG
    • other translations
  • other short stories? by Chamisso to combine?
    • The Story Without an End (11,200 w.)

• W. Somerset Maugham

  • Liza of Lambeth
  • The Magician
  • Of Human Bondage (see above list)
  • The Moon and Sixpence
  • more through 1921

• George du Maurier 1894 - Trilby

• Earnest Vincent Wright, Gadsby, A Story of Over 50,000 Words Without Using the Letter "E".

Other Legally Uncertain Items from the Guardian's Top 100 List

There are a number of works in that weird fuzzy legal area on my Google Spreadsheet listing all 100 novels from the Guardian List. Works that are PD in Canada but not the US, or works that I could not find on Project Gutenberg (or Hathi Trust as full text search) are marked "When PD?"

More stuff from The Big Read, not PD yet

Almost in Public Domain or will be (fairly) soon:

• A. A. Milne - Winnie-the-Pooh, 1926
  • Milne has many other stores transcribed on Gutenberg, that might be worth determining if/how to make into a collection (or some standalone?)
• Erich Maria Remarque - All Quiet on the Western Front - 1929
• Lewis Grassic Gibbon - Sunset Song - 1932 (author died in 1935)

And in a decade or two? (maybe?)

• Daphne du Maurier - Rebecca - 1938
• J.R.R. Tolkein - The Hobbit - 1937
• Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath - 1939
• Steinbeck - Of Mice and Men - novella - 1937
• Aldous Huxley - Brave New World - 1932
• Stella Gibbons - Cold Comfort Farm - 1932
• Arthur Ransome - Swallows and Amazons - 1930