[Rightwing Conspiratr1]

I should add that the copyright act of 1976 grandfathers in a 47 year term for those works that hadn't already expired by 1978, and the Bono Act of ninety something or other grandfathers in a 75 - 120 year term for works that haven't expired yet.

The net affect of this is about half of Edgar Rice Burroughs and H.P. Lovecraft's books have entered the public domain and they died a long time ago. That is to say very roughly speaking that books written in the 1930's and 40's are the ones entering into public domian these days. Tolkein's books will enter the public domain in 2030 - 2040 something.

[kevkrom]

I should add that the copyright act of 1976 grandfathers in a 47 year term for those works that hadn't already expired by 1978

This is where my reading was ambiguous. The copyright act of '76 made such works eligible for automatic extension, but it also seemed to imply the such works either had to be registered with the copyright office or the author(s) had to make some proactive measure (such as asserting the extended copyright in a newer printing). Since The New Soldier has neither been registered nor reprinted, I'm not 100% sure that its copyright was ever renewed in a timely fashion.