I bought a copy of Gildersleve and Lodge’s ‘Latin Composition’ from Amazon. I was wondering if this book is still under copyright? In the front of the book it says that the copyright date is 1904, but how does one find out if the copyright has since been renewed or bought?
Here’s a chart from UNC that I like about when things pass into the public domain:
http://www.unc.edu/~unclng/public-d.htm
According to it, things published before 1923 are in the public domain regardless of whether or not they were renewed because any renewal period would have expired. Of course, this just applies to US copyright.
Jeff may have more to say on the matter, since it is his specialty.