Out of copyright post-apocalyptic stories

January 22, 2012 12:16 PM

Dear Metafilter: can you suggest any short stories that fit a general theme of post-apocalyptic stories, but which are out of copyright/public domain?

(Novels too, but short stories preferred. Am looking for something to include in a themed collection with newer work.)

Thank you!

posted by reynir to media & arts (6 answers total)

The Night of the Long Knives by Fritz Leiber
posted by BitterOldPunk at 12:23 PM on January 22, 2012

Check out the story told in the awesome post-apocalyptic poem "Darkness" by Lord Byron.
posted by steinsaltz at 12:34 PM on January 22, 2012

A lot of possibilities to explore on Wikipedia's apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction page. Everything in the pre-1900s but there is material in the early 1900's as well (depending on the copyright restrictions you need to be within). I don't know if E.M. Forster's "The Machine Stops" fits the bill sufficiently for post-apocalyptic (it is a strong element in the story but not exactly its central issue) but it's a fantastic, prescient piece of surprising speculative work from Forster.
posted by nanojath at 12:36 PM on January 22, 2012 [2 favorites]

Nanojath...why didn't I think of that? Great idea, thank you. And to you BitterOldPunk and steinsaltz, I shall check those out.
posted by reynir at 12:39 PM on January 22, 2012

HiLoBrow is currently serializing Jack London's post-apocalyptic novel The Scarlet Plague. Also available in full at Project Gutenberg.
posted by escabeche at 1:12 PM on January 22, 2012 [1 favorite]

The story of Noah perhaps.
posted by rongorongo at 2:55 PM on January 22, 2012