Virginia Woolf’s Works Now In The Public Domain

On January 1, 2012 Virginia Woolf’s books officially entered the public domain in Great Britain.

Woolf wrote many influential literary works, including Orlando, A Room of One’s Own, Mrs. Dalloway and To The Lighthouse as well as numerous essays and short stories.

According to copyright laws in Great Britain, which protects an author’s work for 70 years after his or her death, these works can now be reprinted, reproduced or used by the public without paying a licensing fee.

Since Leonard Woolf renewed the copyright for most of Virginia’s book in the United States during the 1940s and 50s, most of Woolf’s books are still copyrighted in the U.S., except for a few of her books published before 1923, such as Jacob’s Room and The Voyage Out.

Other authors who have also entered the public domain in Great Britain in 2012 are James Joyce, James George Frazer, Louis Brandeis, Robert Baden-Powell, Henri Bergson, Gaetano Mosca, Rabindranath Tagore and Marina Ivanovna Tsvetaeva.

^{Sources:
Public Domain Day: http://www.publicdomainday.org/}