The American Writers Museum’s annual roundup of some of the notable works that entered the Public Domain this year.
Written by Matthew Masino
Each year on January 1, a collection of copyrighted work loses its protected status and enters the public domain. This is marked with the celebration of Public Domain Day. We celebrated the day last year when Popeye the Sailor Man entered the public domain.
According to the Center for the Study of the Public Domain, “The goal of copyright is to promote creativity, and the public domain plays a central role in doing so. Copyright law gives authors important rights that encourage creativity and distribution. But it also ensures that those rights last for a ‘limited time,’ so that when they expire, works can go into the public domain, where future authors can legally build upon their inspirations…Anyone can use these works as raw material for their own creations, without fear of a lawsuit. What kinds of things will people do with public domain works?”
Now that it is 2026, many works are entering the public domain for the first time. In the United States, books, films, and other media published in 1930 enter the public domain in 2026, along with sound recordings from 1925. Many are obscure, but we’ve highlighted some of the big names below, including a certain spinach-loving, strong-armed sailor. We hope their new legal status inspires you to go out and create something of your own!
Here are just a few selections of works to enter the public domain in 2026:
Characters
With each new year, a new crop of classic characters is walking straight into the public domain…and low-budget horror movies. Betty Boop, who first appeared in the 1930 cartoon Dizzy Dishes (image below), will celebrate her new public domain status with an appearance in the upcoming VMI film Boop (working title). Also joining Betty is Mickey Mouse’s best pal Rover (later renamed Pluto), Flip the Frog from Fiddlesticks, and Blondie and Dagwood from the Blondie comic series.
Books
- As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
- The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
- Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
- The 42nd Parallel by John Dos Passos
- Cimarron by Edna Ferber
- The Little Engine That Could by Watty Piper
- The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth
- Ash Wednesday by T.S. Eliot
Films
- All Quiet on the Western Front
- King of Jazz, Bing Crosby’s film debut
- Animal Crackers
- Soup to Nuts, featuring an early version of the Three Stooges
- Anna Christie, Greta Garbo’s first talkie
- Juno and the Paycock
- Murder!
- The Bat Whispers
- The Royal Family of Broadway
- Madam Satan
Musical Compositions
- “I’ve Got a Crush on You” by Ira Gershwin and George Gershwin
- “Georgia on My Mind” by Stuart Gorrell and Hoagy Carmichael
- “Dream a Little Dream of Me” by Gus Kahn, Fabian Andrew, and Wilbur Schwandt
- “On the Sunny Side of the Street” by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh
- “Body and Soul” by Edward Heyman, Robert Sour, Frank Eyton, and Johnny Green
- “Just a Gigolo” by Julius Brammer and Leonello Casucci, translated by Irving Caesar
- “You’re Driving Me Crazy” by Walter Donaldson
International Works
While our goal here at the American Writers Museum is to celebrate the writing of American authors, we also want to highlight some international works entering the public domain here in the United States.
- The Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie
- Private Lives by Noël Coward
- Last and First Men by Olaf Stapledon
- Civilization and Its Discontents by Sigmund Freud (in the original German)
- Composition of Circles and Overlapping Angels by Sophie Taeuber-Arp
- The Jules Rimet Cup designed by Abel Lafleur
Matthew Masino is the Community Engagement Manager for the AWM. He is also a content creator, writer, and theatre director based in Chicago, Illinois. He graduated with a B.F.A. in Theatre Directing from Columbia College Chicago in 2019. As a theatre artist, Matthew has worked with the International Voices Project, the Chicago Fringe Festival, and BYOT Productions. You can learn more by visiting his website www.matthewmasino.com.