Timewaster's Guide Archive
Departments => Books => Topic started by: Shrain on June 13, 2006, 01:23:23 PM
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Just thought this bit of news was interesting:
Steinbeck Heirs Get Early Win
by Jim Milliot, PW Daily -- 6/13/2006
Article
U.S. District Court Judge Richard Owen has ruled that a son and granddaughter of John Steinbeck hold the publishing rights to 10 Steinbeck works, including Of Mice and Men, The Grapes of Wrath and The Red Pony. Penguin has long been Steinbeck’s publisher, releasing his works under an agreement between the company and Steinbeck’s estate.
Last year, Thomas Steinbeck and Blake Smyle filed suit over control of the copyrights, and in his ruling Judge Owen found that copyright law gives heirs the right to renegotiate rights to works whose value has increased since the original deal was signed. Publishing attorney Lloyd Jassin noted the decision reflects the fact that under copyright law if an author of a pre-1978 work dies during the first 28-year term of copyright, the author's copyright stays in the family. “Even if that author assigned or willed his or her copyrights to a third party, the author’s statutory successors as determined by the Copyright Act, not unrelated third parties, would own the renewal term,” Jassin explained.
Although Penguin stopped short of saying they will appeal the decision, an appeal appears all but certain. “The decision issued by the district court last week is but the first round in what will be a long and complicated process,” Penguin’s Maureen Donnelly said in a statement. “Some of Steinbeck's classics published by Penguin are affected by the this decision; the purported terminations will not take effect for most of them for many years in the future.”
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Congratulations, Thomas Steinbeck, you own 10 of the dullest and most pretentious works of American fiction!
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and yet here I am getting ads for Pee-wee Herman ringtones on this page.
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I, on the other hand, am being offered "Famous People" and a deal on the Steinbeck library, apparently sold by the page (does this mean I can get 1500 pages for $5?):
John Steinbeck Library
East of Eden, Grapes of Wrath, & 11 others--3,000 pages for $9.95
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Just wait until 2038, when his works are in the public domain. Unless, or course, they keep extending the copyright term every 20 years, to protect Micky Mouse.
Curses to you Sonny Bono...
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Congratulations, Thomas Steinbeck, you own 10 of the dullest and most pretentious works of American fiction!
That's funny to me because while I think nearly all of American literature is tripe, at best, Steinbeck is one of the few I respect. I bought a nice copy of Of Mice and Men just so I could have it.
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I thought of mice and men was a good book. Not a nice book, but good nonetheless.
Not read anything else by him.
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Didn't Steinbeck write The Red Pony and Cannery Row? I liked those, too. I'm like SE, I've liked Steinbeck more than most, though I probably wouldn't add him to my book collection--I doubt I'd read them again.
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Grapes of Wrath. Assigned reading for AP Lit. You know the thing I remember most? How the Joads ran over a poor turtle and how they got the, uh, runs from eating too many peaches. Hum. The things you remember....
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Yesterday the AFI put Graped of Wrath in the top ten Most Inspiring Movies of All Time. Now, I haven't seen the movie, but the book certainly wasn't inspiring.
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Yeah, that one is too depressing for me. But the Red Pony--which is a short story, I think--if it's the story, I'm thinking of, was pretty nice, something about a boy saving his pennies to buy a pony, which I really identified with when I was reading it as an 8th grader or a freshman.
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I read The Pearl in high school and loathed it. I read The Moon is Down in college and loved it. I think Steinbeck must be hit and miss. Oh, and Grapes of Wrath the movie? One of the most boring movies I've ever sat through.
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Yeah, that one is too depressing for me. But the Red Pony--which is a short story, I think--if it's the story, I'm thinking of, was pretty nice, something about a boy saving his pennies to buy a pony, which I really identified with when I was reading it as an 8th grader or a freshman.
If I remember correctly The Red Pony is a short novel, really geared towards what is now called a YA or even children's audience. It's a loose novel, in that it is a group of related stories put together as chapters. In fact, each chapter may have originated as its own separate story, which was later compiled into a novel.
And I love Steinbeck. Grapes isn't necessarily my favorite, but I like Cannery Row, The Red Pony, The Pearl, what I've read of East of Eden (circumstances did not allow me to finish that one.)
I love Of Mice and Men and Tortilla Flat. Awesome books.