Can I publish a public domain poem?

September 11, 2012 8:12 AM

A very simple question about public domain and publishing, specifically regarding the use of a poem in a book.

Signals and messages seem rather mixed and unclear on this subject. I'd like to know if it's possible to reproduce a poem, specifically The Snow Man by Wallace Stevens, at the front of a book as a sort of frontispiece. According to the Wikipedia page, the poem is in the public domain. Does this mean we can reproduce it in full in a book that will be available for commercial sale around the world? It would of course be fully cited and credited. Forgive my naivety and ignorance in advance.

posted by jonathanbell to media & arts (5 answers total)

Yes, that is what the public domain is. You can use it for any reason and in any way. I'd do some legwork to make sure that Wikipedia's assertion about that poem is correct. You can use this chart which implies that this is the case. This does not mean, however, that your publisher will see it that way and you may need to do some other wrangling with them.
posted by jessamyn at 8:16 AM on September 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

I believe public domain rules and laws differ on a per-country basis. So the answer in the US may not be the answer in Australia, or the UK, or Japan.

I'm totally not a lawyer.
posted by jsturgill at 8:27 AM on September 11, 2012

Keep in mind that, if you decide to publish the book in translation, many translations of the poem will not be public domain.
posted by Sara C. at 9:02 AM on September 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Where Wikipedia says it's in the public domain, that applies to the US, since it was published in 1921 and usually anything published before 1923 is out of copyright in the US. But Stevens died in 1955, and in most of the rest of the world copyright now lasts till 70 years after the death of the author, so in the EU, for example, it will be under copyright till the end of 2025. So unless the author or author's estate specifically released this into the public domain, you could run into problems with publishers anywhere outside the US. However, given that it's out of copyright in the US, the estate may give permission if asked.

That's if the publisher is based outside the US - if you're publishing everything in the US and exporting the book I don't think anyone bothers chasing up people about the copyright difference.


(As an example of quite how long copyright can last, George Bernard Shaw published a novel in 1879 which is still under copyright in the EU, since he died at the ripe old age of 94 and the copyright only runs out at the end of 2020.)
posted by Azara at 2:57 PM on September 11, 2012

Thank you very much everyone. I think we're going to go with a short extract instead to circumvent all this complexity. I really appreciate all the information and help given.
posted by jonathanbell at 6:36 AM on September 12, 2012