Gareth Owen wrote:

Thanks a lot. He died in 1925, so if I understand http://www.loc.gov/copyright/circs/circ1.html#hlc correctly, the very latest it would be in copyright is last year, so they're fair game. Correct?

It seems hard to say, based on my reading of this thing.

It seems that "Public Law 105-298, enacted on October 27, 1998, further extended the renewal term of copyrights still subsisting on that date by an additional 20 years, providing for a renewal term of 67 years and a total term of protection of 95 years."

So if it was published in 1908, then it seems that if the renewals were done timely, there could be copyright protection until 2003.

Or would that be... 95 years past his *death*?

I dunno. You should ask the Project Gutenberg people -- they work on this copyright stuff all the time.

http://promo.net/pg/subs.html and subscribe to 'gutvol-d'. There are some good people on there (I used to subscribe) who seem to know all about this stuff.