https://copyrightlately.com/public-domain-2026/In the U.S., books first published in 1930 enter the public domain on January 1, 2026, which includes a mix of modernist, genre, and children’s classics. Below is a selection of notable Fiction (plus a few closely related long works of fiction) that are widely cited as highlights.Public domain material benefits culture, education, and the economy by making creative and informational works free for anyone to use, adapt, and share without permission or fees. It supports preservation and innovation.I am especially pleased that Olaf Stapleton’s “The Last and the First Men”, Hart Crane’s “The Bridge”, and the early Nancy Drew mysteries.

Notable Fiction Entering the Public Domain in 2026

Literary Fiction:

• As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
• The Maltese Falcon, Dashiell Hammett
• Vile Bodies, Evelyn Waugh
• Cimarron, Edna Ferber (Pulitzer Prize winner; adapted into 1931 Best Picture)
• Cakes and Ale, W. Somerset Maugham
• Last and First Men, Olaf Stapledon

Mystery & Crime:

• The Murder at the Vicarage, Agatha Christie (first Miss Marple novel)
• The Mysterious Mr. Quin, Agatha Christie
• Giant’s Bread, Mary Westmacott (Agatha Christie pseudonym)
• Strong Poison, Dorothy L. Sayers
• The Documents in the Case, Dorothy L. Sayers and Robert Eustace
• It Walks By Night, John Dickson Carr (Carr’s first detective novel)
• Mystery Mile, Margery Allingham
• The French Powder Mystery, Ellery Queen
• Charlie Chan Carries On, Earl Derr Biggers
• Enter the Saint (UK edition), Leslie Charteris
• The Door, Mary Roberts Rinehart
• Destry Rides Again, Max Brand

Drama:

• Private Lives, Noël Coward
• The Green Pastures, Marc Connelly (Pulitzer Prize for Drama)
• Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Kurt Weill, Bertolt Brecht
• The Human Voice, Jean Cocteau
• The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Rudolf Besier

Children’s & Young Adult:

• The Little Engine That Could, Watty Piper
• Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome (first in series of 12 books)
• The Cat Who Went to Heaven, Elizabeth Coatsworth (Newbery Medal winner)
• The Tale of Little Pig Robinson, Beatrix Potter
• The Secret of the Old Clock, Carolyn Keene (first Nancy Drew novel)
• The Hidden Staircase, Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew #2)
• The Bungalow Mystery, Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew #3)
• The Mystery at Lilac Inn, Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew #4)
• The Great Airport Mystery, Franklin W. Dixon (Hardy Boys #9)
• Dick and Jane (from Elson Basic Readers: Primer), William S. Gray
• The Yellow Knight of Oz, Ruth Plumly Thompson (24th Oz book)
• Quick et Flupke: Gamins de Bruxelles, Hergé (early collection of Quick and Flupke comic strips)

Poetry:

• Ash Wednesday, T.S. Eliot
• Collected Poems, Robert Frost
• Poems, W.H. Auden (first major collection)
• The Bridge, Hart Crane

Nonfiction:

• Civilization and Its Discontents, Sigmund Freud (German)
• Seven Types of Ambiguity, William Empson (foundational work of literary criticism)
• Growing Up in New Guinea, Margaret Mead
• The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection, Ronald Fisher
• My Early Life, Winston Churchill
• The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, Francis Yeats-Brown
• Memoirs of an Infantry Officer, Siegfried Sassoon
• Not So Quiet: Stepdaughters of War, Helen Zenna Smith
• The Mysterious Universe, James Jeans…

Source: Excellent copyright info and listings at https://copyrightlately.com/public-domain-2026/