Hemingway's Most Tender Novel is Suddenly in the Public Domain
Every year, several famous works of art enter the public domain, which essentially means, those things are no longer protected by copyright. Essentially, when something becomes old enough—the life of the author/creator, plus 70 years—it becomes the property of the public, which is why, in the past few years, we've been getting a rash of horror movies about Winnie the Pooh and Mickey Mouse. Because enough time has passed, aspects of those characters have finally entered the public domain.
But now, a very specific and famous work of art has entered the public domain, the brilliant 1929 novel by Ernest Hemingway, A Farwell to Arms. This was Hemingway's fifth published book overall, and his third novel. However, behind his debut book, The Sun Also Rises (1926), most consider A Farwell to Arms to be Hemingway's first true masterpiece.
Set during World War I, the story focuses on Frederic Henry, an ambulance driver helping out on the Italian front. It's very much a war book, but it's also a tragic romance, too. Based in part on Hemingway's real experiences, much of the novel deals with Henry's war injuries and his subsequent recovery in which he falls in love with a nurse named Catherine Barkley.
A Farwell to Arms entering the public domain now means that anyone, literally anyone, can make their own adaptation of the book, or even their own literary spin-off. Meaning, if you wanted to write a book or movie in which Henry becomes a cyborg, and fights vampires in WWI, you could, legally. In fact, if you wanted to take that concept one step further, you could also have Henry belt out "Singin’ in the Rain," since that Arthur Freed-penned song has also entered the public domain as of January 1, 2025.
But, if you want to wait and make your historical mash-up fan fiction even more nuts, you could wait until 2026. Next year, the earliest Betty Boop cartoons will enter the public domain, too.